Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron in Running to Lead Bishops Group
By Patricia Montemurri
When the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops gathers in Baltimore Monday, the clash between Pope Francis’ gentle, welcoming brand of religion and the bishops’ hard-line push against issues such as abortion and gay marriage will lurk in the background. The four-day meeting is the first gathering of the bishops since Pope Francis’ widely-publicized comments in September, in which he said Catholic officials should not be “obsessed” with deeply controversial issues such as gay marriage and abortion and should instead emphasize helping poor and disadvantaged people. Howthe pope’s tone will be promoted is not on the conference agenda, but futurestances from the bishops group likely will be found in who is elected to leadership posts during the conference. Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron, 65, is among the 10 nominees for the group’s president and vice president. The bishops group sets standards for some 300 dioceses and archdiocese across the U.S., and pushes Catholics teachings in influencing public policy and laws. That can range from opposing abortion and U.S. military intervention abroad, or voicing support for immigration reform. Last week, for example, the outgoing bishops group president, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, said there was “a moral urgency” as he called on the U.S. House of Representatives to pass immigration reform. “This is a real crossroads moments for Catholic bishops in the United States,” said John Gehring, the Catholic program director for the Washington, D.C.-based Faith in Public Life, an interfaith advocacy group. “Bishops can dig in their heels and be defined by what they oppose. Or they can choose the path that Francis is laying out with his pastoral tone and focusing on the poor.” “The bishops have a unique opportunity now to hit the reset button and capture some of the energy and goodwill that the pope is bringing to the church,” said Gehring, who once worked for the bishops conference. “Pope Francis is laying out a playbook and the question is will the bishops follow it.” 10 nominees Among the 10 nominees to succeed Dolan is Vigneron, who hasn’t softened high-profile comments earlier this year that Catholics who support gay marriage should refrain from receiving communion at mass. If general past practice holds up, the current bishops group vice president, Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, Ky., will be elected president on Tuesday. But that wasn’t the case when Dolan was elected president three years ago. Dolan beat the then-vice president, Bishop Gerald Kicanas of Tucson, Ariz., as the bishops opted for a more outspoken, forceful voice for policies against abortion and gay marriage. The new president becomes the top spokesman for the Catholic Church in the U.S., and a go-to person for Pope Francis in promoting his initiatives. About 445 Catholic bishops are in the U.S., including retired and auxiliary bishops. From the slate of 10 nominees, the bishops will elect a president and then a vice president. The toughest contest among bishops will be for vice president, who then becomes the odds-on favorite to assume the presidency in three years. While Francis, who took over in March after Pope Benedict XVI resigned, has garnered praise for his less rigid, welcoming tone, he also has agitated many Catholic conservatives. Anti-abortion activist Monica Migliorino Miller, a religious studies professor at Madonna University in Livonia, ripped into the pope on her anti-abortion Citizens for a Pro-Life Society website with an online essay titled “Unpacking the Pope’s PR Debacle.” It was posted in September and is still on the site. The pope’s comments, wrote Miller, left anti-abortion activists “in the lurch” and “thrown to the wolves.” Miller went on to write: “Finally, I do wonder if Pope Francis is truly aware of the extent of the injustice that abortion represents. I am not sure that he sufficiently appreciates what it costs pro-lifers to save babies from abortion.” Miller did not answer an e-mail or phone call to her Madonna University office for comment. Al Kresta, the president and CEO of Ann Arbor-based Ave Maria Catholic radio, said the pope has changed style, not substance. “Francis doesn’t want the church seen as an agent in the culture wars as defined by conservatives and liberals, Republicans and Democrats,” Kresta said. “Much of the misunderstanding surrounding Francis’ comments have to do with the fact that he chats. He gives interviews, chatty interviews. Not the precise, careful expositions” of his immediate predecessors, Kresta said last week in an e-mail. “I love it,” said Kresta, “although my producer and I look at each other every time Francis gives an interview and say, ‘It looks like we’ll be working a bit harder this week.’ ” Conservative outlook The nation’s Catholic bishops were elevated to their posts under the tenures of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. It will take years and years for Francis to make his mark by replacing bishops, once they retire, with those who openly share his direction. This is the third time Vigneron has been nominated for the bishops group presidency. Vigneron — born, raised and ordained in Michigan through the Detroit archdiocese — was nominated in 2007, during his tenure as bishop of the Oakland, Calif., diocese. He became Detroit archbishop in 2009, and was nominated again in 2010, the year Dolan won. Highly regarded for his management skills and conservative credentials, Vigneron’s latest nomination also suggests his fellow bishops rewarded him for his blunt stance against Catholics who support gay marriage, said the Rev. Thomas Reese, a longtime Catholic commentator and senior analyst for the National Catholic Reporter. But Vigneron was rebuked by bishops at last year’s assembly. In a rare move, the bishops failed to pass by the required two-thirds majority a pastoral statement Vigneron chaired on the economy, titled “The Hope of the Gospel in Difficult Economic Times: A pastoral message on work, poverty and the economy.” Vigneron — the Catholic prelate representing southeastern Michigan, the birthplace of the UAW and the heavily-unionized auto industry — was criticized for neglecting to promote long-established Catholic social teaching on workers rights to organize and join unions, and other issues, according to a Catholic News Service account. Vigneron declined to comment for this report. Analyst Reese said Vigneron is a long shot for either the bishops group presidency or vice presidency. “His statement on the economy was badly received and defeated by the bishops last year. If I were Jimmy the Greek, I would not bet on his election,” Reese said. Besides Kurtz and Vigneron, the other leadership candidates are Archbishop Gregory Aymond of New Orleans; Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia; Bishop Blase Cupich of Spokane, Wash.; Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston; Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles; Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore; Archbishop Dennis Schnurr of Cincinnati and Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami. Reese said he’s guessing the vice presidency may come down to Gomez and Chaput. All the nominees are, by varying degrees, conservatives, Reese said. “A vote for Chaput would be a vote to keep the culture wars at the top of the bishops’ agenda,” he said. Gomez may win the vice presidency, as the bishops see the need for a Hispanic-American prelate who can elevate the bishops’ renewed call for immigration reform to a high priority. Radio host Kresta said he is sure the bishops “will discuss informally among themselves how they can best respond to Pope Francis’ example.” Kresta gives his vote to Vigneron, calling him “a careful thinker and loving teacher” and “while not a revolutionary, he does and can think radically ... and tries to work solutions from the root.” “I told him I’d wear a campaign button if he wanted,” Kresta said. “He turned me down.”
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