Louisville Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz Poised for Higher Calling Within the Church
By Peter Smith
[with video] As the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops gather in Washington the week of Nov. 11, the man they are expected to elect as their new president is Louisville’s archbishop, 67-year-old Joseph E. Kurtz. It’s one of the most influential positions in American Catholicism, the public face and voice of 445 bishops who shepherd the largest religious body in the United States, with 67 million members. As president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Kurtz would advocate his colleagues’ views in Washington on such issues as same-sex marriage and the federal mandate for employers to cover contraception for employees. He’d also serve as a conduit to the Vatican, conveying bishops’ concerns to Rome and Rome’s views to them. He was appointed to his Louisville position under now-retired Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and has been a vocal advocate in echoing Benedict’s opposition to same-sex marriage and growing secularism in Western culture. But his expected rise to president of the bishops conference coincides with the new era of Pope Francis, who has created a sensation in the first months of his pontificate by shedding the trappings of wealth, connecting with the poor and issuing gestures of empathy toward gays, the divorced and others estranged from church life and traditional beliefs. Kurtz sees no contradictions between the two popes’ views, saying that Francis has adopted a more pastoral, less confrontational tone on cultural controversies than his predecessor. Francis “repeats often that he’s a son of the church,” Kurtz said. “He wants to pass on sacred traditions but in doing so, always seeing the person first.” Whether Kurtz can make similar personal connections with opponents will be one of his challenges, say those who have followed his ministry. “We’ve not yet seen the heart of Joe Kurtz,” said state Rep. Jim Wayne, a Louisville Catholic and Democrat. “My hope is this warm, caring person I’ve seen in small groups, that he unleashes that.” Kurtz said he in turn will seek to emulate Pope Francis’ approach. “Anybody called in leadership within the (bishops conference) is called to be a servant to Christ and to the church and to the common good, to the public,” Kurtz said. Election not a given If elected to head the conference, it would be familiar work for Kurtz, the group’s current vice president and formerly its treasurer and head of its committee handling marriage issues. He also chairs the Catholic Conference of Kentucky, which advocates church positions on state issues, and previously served on the boards of its counterparts in Tennessee and Pennsylvania during his ministries there. But there is no guarantee Kurtz will be elected president of the bishops conference. His colleagues broke custom in 2010 when they elected New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan — a gregarious yet feisty culture warrior — over the incumbent vice president, Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of Tucson, Ariz. The bishops elected Kurtz as vice president that same year. But while this year’s ballot includes a cardinal and several other archbishops, Kurtz has done nothing to disappoint his colleagues, said the Rev. Thomas Reese, a journalist who has long followed the hierarchy and written three books on the topic. The bishops in 2010 “wanted somebody who would be much more of a fighter on the issues they’re concerned about,” including the mandate that some faith-based employers and private businesses provide contraceptive coverage under the Affordable Care Act regardless of employers’ religious positions. Kurtz’s supporters cite his loyalty to church teachings, an ardent piety rooted in his youth at an immigrant parish in Pennsylvania coal-mining country, and a breakneck pace in ministry with a vigor that belies his 67 years in a priestly ministry he had sensed since childhood. They cite his gregarious warmth — whether mixing among politicians, parishioners, prisoners or the poor — and his simplicity, living in a walk-up apartment next to the Cathedral of the Assumption, regularly visiting with the homeless and doing Christmas Masses behind prison bars as well as in the cathedral. Yet they also cite Kurtz’s willingness to engage in culture wars over abortion, marriage, the Affordable Care Act and religious liberty. “He’s a great believer in justice,” said Bishop Herbert Bevard of St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands, a close friend of Kurtz since their Pennsylvania seminary days. “He’s a very faithful churchman, but he is very, very kind. I don’t think he has an enemy in the world.” But some see Kurtz as the ultimate company man — a willing spokesman for causes embraced by the hierarchy he is rising in, yet unable to grasp the wrenching human dimensions of controversies over homosexuality, abortion or the role of women in the church. “In my personal contacts with him, I find him using the institution as a filter to block the pain people are trying to share with him,” said Helen Deines, a local Catholic long active in progressive causes. While not surprised by Kurtz’s vocal opposition to same-sex marriage — which included his backing and financial contributions in referendum campaigns in other states to preserve traditional definitions of marriage — she laments his silence on proposals for a statewide ordinance banning discrimination against gays in such areas as employment or housing. Kurtz does take to the public square when he feels it’s necessary — praying outside an abortion clinic in downtown Louisville or keynoting a strident rally in front of a federal building in Louisville to protest the contraception mandate and other actions he says are part of an assault on religious liberty. But “no matter what people think, he is not a one-issue person,” said the Rev. Patrick Delahanty, executive director of the Catholic Conference of Kentucky. He said Kurtz is an avid supporter of immigration reform, regulations on payday lending and calling for state budgets that care for the neediest. One of Kurtz’s first acts after becoming archbishop in 2007, Delahanty said, was to rearrange a long-planned calendar to meet with the governor on behalf of a death-row inmate. Bevard is confident his fellow bishops will elect Kurtz, whom he says has plenty of experience running meetings and “inviting participation and cooperation” from all involved. Kurtz always “has had a listening ear, and I do believe he also has a pastor’s heart,” said the Rev. Bill Hammer, president of the Priests’ Council in the Archdiocese of Louisville. “Those will serve anybody well in a leadership position,” said Hammer, pastor of the Basilica of St. Joseph Proto-Cathedral in Bardstown. Pious beginning endures Kurtz was born in the small mining town of Mahanoy City, Pa. He recalls spending his early years playing sports in dusty lots and attending a school and parish rooted in the Slovak heritage of his grandparents. That heritage endures in his religious life, said a longtime friend, the Rev. William Seifert of Allentown, Pa. “He is not afraid of piety, of being publicly Catholic,” he said. Seifert recalled the young Kurtz as passionate about serving the poor while being “savage on the basketball court.” Seifert recalled that Kurtz drew him into ministries with the deaf and the developmentally disabled. Bevard said Kurtz has always liked a good joke — except when told at someone’s expense. Kurtz told himonce, “Herb, it’s only funny if everybody laughs.” Kurtz cared for his brother, Georgie, who had Down syndrome. Georgie lived with his brother in Pennsylvania and later Tennessee after the latter became a bishop there until Georgie’s death in 2002. The brothers and Bevard often vacationed together at the beach or in European capitals. “If you didn’t know him with his brother,” Bevard said, “you never knew him.” Kurtz pastored churches in the Diocese of Allentown, got a master’s degree in social work, taught seminarians and led the diocese’s social services agency. He was named bishop of Knoxville, Tenn., in 1999, and named archbishop of Louisville by Pope Benedict XVI in 2007. As archbishop, Kurtz has advocated the “new evangelization,” a term emphasized by recent popes to present the gospel in creative ways to those who have left or distanced themselves from the church. The new evangelization, Kurtz emphasized, is not a bureaucratic program but “a new spirit” that infuses anything from his discussions with young adult Catholics to the “Rite for the Blessing of a Child in the Womb,” recently approved by the Vatican at Kurtz’s request. The blessing, he said, can help the church reconnect with adults who have drifted away from the church and are wary of returning, particularly if the expectant parents are unmarried. “When they finally do call a parish, they hear only the rules,” Kurtz said. “What we need first is to be able to highlight God’s grace (in) their lives.” As he deals with people who oppose church stances on marriage and other issues, Kurtz said he sees Francis as an example. “One of his fears is that the richness of the church’s teachings will be marginalized” without presenting them “in the mercy of Christ, reaching out to people with their wounds.” Kurtz urged to toss script The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests issued a statement opposing Kurtz’s potential presidency. It said Kurtz didn’t do enough to repudiate his predecessor in Knoxville, Anthony J. O’Connell, after O’Connell was removed from ministry because of sexual abuse. And the group cites the Archdiocese of Louisville’s decision to allow the Rev. James Schook to live at a parish even while under investigation for sexual abuse for several months in 2009 and 2010. Schook now faces criminal charges. “It seems like (Kurtz has) been totally hands-off” on matters of sexual abuse, said Cal Pfeiffer, a local representative of SNAP. “I’m not aware of any healing services he had done, any reaching out.” Kurtz said he supports the continued implementation of the 2002 Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. “The church needs to continue to reach out first of all in creating a safe environment and in reaching out to victims/survivors of abuse,” he said. “... I certainly hope within the Archdiocese of Louisville others can see the progress that I’ve seen. Does that not mean there’s not still great work to be done? No question.” Wayne, the state representative, applauded Kurtz in many ways but hopes he will follow Francis’ example in seeking more spontaneous connections with those alienated from the church. Kurtz is “a holy man, he is someone who is gifted at administration, gifted at fundraising, and he’s taken some strong stands in Frankfort,” Wayne said, citing his opposition to the death penalty and support for tax and bridge-toll policies that benefit the poor. But if Kurtz becomes conference president, “I hope he throws away the script,” Wayne added. “That’s what we see literally with Pope Francis — he sets the script aside literally and speaks from the heart.”
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