Threat of U.S. Catholic, Vatican Division Seen : Head of Nation’s Bishops Issues Warning, Wants Prelates, Pope to Meet to Smooth Differences

WASHINGTON — The president of the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops on Monday warned that “a growing and dangerous disaffection” threatens to divide elements of the American church and the Vatican.

To effect a reconciliation, Bishop James W. Malone of Youngstown, Ohio, proposed that a delegation of prelates meet with Pope John Paul II in Rome to smooth out their differences before the pontiff visits the United States next September.

At the same time, in an apparent attempt to ease the tensions arising from the recent Vatican disciplining of Seattle Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen for his liberal practices, the Pope sent the U.S. bishops an unusual, seven-page letter expressing “fraternal solidarity” and encouraging their work.

But the Pope’s letter, read on the opening morning of the prelates’ annual four-day conference here, pointedly reminded the U.S. bishops that they “are, and must always be, in full communion with the successor of Peter” (the Pope) and thus cannot act independently of Rome. In other years, the Pope’s letter has typically consisted of a simple exchange of greetings.

For many bishops, strains between the U.S. church and the Pope--fueled by the current Vatican crackdown on dissent from official church teaching--underline the simmering debate about the proper relationship between John Paul and national bodies of bishops.

In his opening talk Monday, Malone, the outgoing president of the 315-member U.S. bishops’ conference, recognized the right of the Pope to intervene in the Hunthausen case. But he also emphasized the “collegial spirit” uniting the U.S. bishops with each other and with the Pope.

“We recognize that our conference of bishops has no competence to interject itself into the special relationship between the Holy Father (the Pope) and a local bishop. Nor have we any intention of engaging in a retrospective review of events which have already occurred,” Malone said.

Details of Hunthausen’s censure by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican watchdog agency for orthodoxy, came to light after Hunthausen, a liberal on sexual ethics as well as a social activist, revealed last September that he had been relieved of pastoral authority in five sensitive areas. The duties--relating to liturgy, marriage annulments, ministries to homosexuals, training of priests and dealing with priests who have left the priesthood--were turned over to a Vatican-appointed auxiliary bishop, Donald Wuerl.

The bishops, in a three-hour closed-door session today, are scheduled to discuss how the issue might be resolved in a way that would support the Seattle archbishop without appearing to disregard the Vatican’s right to take direct actions against him.

Fraternal Support

“The purpose . . . of addressing this matter in our executive session,” Malone told his fellow bishops, “is simply . . . to offer fraternal support to Archbishop Hunthausen and Bishop Wuerl in their future efforts to minister to the church in Seattle. We look to this as a constructive expression of the collegial experience which unites us with one another and with the Holy Father.”

But, in order to give the Pope a firsthand perspective on the American Catholic Church, Malone proposed that officers of the U.S. bishops’ conference fly to Rome “in late winter or early spring.” Malone said the bishops of the host dioceses in the six states that the Pope is to visit next year and active U.S. cardinals would be included in the delegation.

Malone said John Paul’s U.S. trip, which includes Los Angeles, is a “welcome, timely opportunity . . . to direct our attention to the fundamental unity among the people of the church even in times of misunderstanding and tension.”

Referring to current controversy over the role of theologians versus the teaching authority of bishops, Malone added: “What makes the question of dissent all the more complicated in our local church is the passion we have in this country to let all persons have the freedom to give their point of view.”

Seeds of Discord

But that freedom has sown seeds of misunderstanding and discord, Malone conceded.

“No one who reads the newspapers of the past three years can be ignorant of a growing and dangerous disaffection of elements of the church in the United States from the Holy See,” he said. “Some people feel that the local church needs more freedom. Others believe that more control is in order. Some feel that appeals to authority are being exercised too readily. Others applaud what they perceive to be a return to needed central control.

“Wherever you stand, this division presents the church in the United States with a very serious question: How will we move to address this developing estrangement, to strengthen the . . . bonds between the church here and the Holy See?”

The Hunthausen case is being watched closely by both conservative and liberal elements in the U.S. church. Conservative Catholic groups orchestrated complaints about Hunthausen’s liberal practices to the Vatican, which resulted in an investigation launched in 1983. Among actions the Vatican cited in its recent criticism of Hunthausen was allowing a homosexual group to hold a Mass in the Seattle cathedral.

Los Angeles Archbishop Roger M. Mahony, who would be a member of the U.S. bishops’ delegation to the Pope, welcomed the idea of a papal meeting.

“I think it would do a lot to stabilize and broaden lines of communication between ourselves and the Holy See,” Mahony said in an interview.

The archbishop also praised the Pope’s message, delivered to the conference here by Archbishop Pio Laghi, the apostolic pro nuncio , or official delegate, to the U.S. Catholic Church.

Sees a Reaching Out

“We do not ordinarily have a message like that,” Mahony said. “I thought the Holy Father was trying to recognize the tensions that are between us and was reaching out in a very personal way to sustain and support us . . . (in) a restoration of unity.”

Malone, in his presidential speech, also highlighted positive aspects in the growth of the 52.5 million-member U.S. Catholic Church--by far the nation’s largest religious body.

Although Malone said improvement is needed in ending the inequality of women compared to men in church leadership roles, he repeated the church’s injunction against ordaining women.

The bishops on Monday also heard a summary of their long-term project, a 53,000-word letter on the U.S. economy, which will be debated and voted upon in final form Thursday.

The controversial document, six years in the making, differs from Reagan Administration policy on several key issues. It says the American economy fails millions and that sweeping governmental interventions to help the poor and the unemployed must be implemented.

Teaching Document

The letter, which would be widely used as a teaching document for American Catholics after its adoption, calls for government job programs and declares that the large number of poor people “in a nation as rich as ours is a social and moral scandal that must not be ignored.”

The economic statement has drawn fire from conservative Catholics, including former Treasury Secretary William E. Simon. During a television news program Monday, Simon said the document ignores the fact that capitalism “has brought about the greatest prosperity and the highest standard of living, and most importantly the greatest individual freedom and human dignity ever known to man.”

Archbishop Rembert Weakland of Milwaukee, chairman of the committee that drafted the economic pastoral, defended the document and warned that without Christian values capitalism can disintegrate into “greed” and monopoly.