Coadjutors: new wrinkle in picking bishops

National Catholic Reporter, Sept 1, 1995 by Arthur Jones

WASHINGTON -- With the announcement that Archbishop William Levada of Portland, Ore., has been named coadjutor archbishop of San Francisco to succeed Archbishop John R. Quinn, the number of U.S. coadjutors has reached at least five, a trend that one bishop watcher calls "fascinating."

Exactly what the trend means -- or what affect it will have in the long run -- is a matter of conjecture. But it seems increasingly clear that in the matter of appointing new bishops, Rome and the American bishops are changing their way of doing business.

A coadjutor (from co-, together, and adjutor, assistant) is a bishop appointed customarily with right of succession. Further, there is the office of apostolic administrator, who may be appointed to assist in a diocese without being promised succession -- though Honolulu's 1993 administrator, Bishop Francis X. DeLorenzo, was subsequently named bishop in 1994. Bishop Norbert Gaughan of Gary, Ind., who is ill, has had Bishop Dale J. Melczek as administrator since 1992.

Today's coadjutors include Archbishop Harry J. Flynn, appointed last year to assist St. Paul-Minneapolis Archbishop John R. Roach. In Corpus Christi, Texas, Bishop Roberto Gonzalez recently was named coadjutor to Bishop Rene H. Gracida.

Also this year, Bishop Robert E. Muldee was named coadjutor in Providence, R.I., to succeed Bishop Louis E. Gelineau, and in Dubuque, Iowa, Coadjutor Bishop Jerome Hanus, appointed in 1994, will be Archbishop Daniel W. Kucera's successor.

In two instances that made headlines at the time, Bishop David Foley was named auxiliary bishop -- not coadjutor, but apparently with some special powers -- to Bishop Walter Sullivan of Richmond, Va., in 1986, and in Seattle, coadjutors were named in 1985 and again in 1987.

In 1991, Archbishop Thomas J. Murphy, who was coadjutor to Seattle Archbishop Raymond G. Hunthausen from 1987, was installed as archbishop.

What does a coadjutor do? Traditionally -- meaning before the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) -- a coadjutor was appointed only when a bishop or archbishop was ailing because, before Vatican II, bishops never retired, they died in office.

In addition, coadjutors occasionally were appointed because a diocese was in bad health -- particularly financially. So, in 1963, Philadelphia Auxiliary Bishop Francis J. Furey was dispatched as coadjutor to a bankrupt San Diego with financial authority over Bishop Charles F. Buddy.

History repeated itself somewhat in San Diego in 1989 when Duluth, Minn., Bishop Robert H. Brom was made coadjutor to Bishop Leo T. Maher amid public airings concerning Maher's handling of money, though the appointment came apparently, and perhaps primarily, because of Maher's health. Maher retired in 1990 and died eight months later.

The coadjutor phenomenon these days "is fascinating," according to Jesuit Fr. Tom Reese, a church watcher and author of Catholic church organization books, including his 1989 Archbishop: Inside the Power Structure of the American Catholic Church. "People thought coadjutors would disappear once bishops started retiring at 75," he said.

"We did see coadjutors being appointed who had special authority and special powers," said Reese, referring to Flynn being named coadjutor in Lafayette, La., in 1986 because of the priest sex abuse crisis. "Now we've seen a whole new phenomenon begin," he said, suggesting that in St. Paul-Minneapolis -- and possibly in San Francisco -- bishops have begun to see a coadjutor appointment as an opportunity to have a larger voice in picking their successors."

Reese explained that the process for a coadjutor appointment is much like that for appointing an auxiliary bishop. "The ordinary is involved in the process in a great way, starting with a list of about 12 names and narrowing that down to about three names for auxiliaries and," said Reese, "from what I hear, to about five names for coadjutor."

This gives the current bishop a much larger role in selection of his successor than if he did nothing and just reached retirement age, said Reese, because at that point, the apostolic nuncio could send in three names and not even show them to the retiring bishop if he chose not to.

Referring to the earlier Minneapolis appointment, Reese said, "Roach was the first one to see the coadjutor as an opportunity for a stronger voice in his successor; it is an opportunity to veto or say 'no way' to certain names on the list."

This new approach, said Reese, gives the bishop nearing retirement not only a voice in the process, but a chance to pick and "train their successors to a certain extent," because the pending retiree will continue to work with the coadjutor for a while.

Reese speculated that "clearly Quinn was also thinking this way (in asking for a coadjutor) and it struck me as a new phenomenon."

The most public U.S. battle over a coadjutor came in 1985 when Donald Wuerl, now bishop of Pittsburgh, was named coadjutor to Seattle's Raymond G. Hunthausen, who was involved in an ongoing struggle with Vatican conservatives. Hunthausen refused to accept Wuerl. Finally, in a compromise worked out with U.S. church officials, the Vatican backed down and, in time, a new coadjutor, Murphy, was named with Hunthausen's approval.