Four Men

insidecatholic.com ^ | 2/13/09 | Russell Shaw

[Publius804]

Four Men

In the space of less than six weeks, from mid-December to late January, four men died who played crucial roles in the shaping of American Catholicism as it stands today.

The four were Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., the leading American Catholic theologian of the postconciliar era, who died December 12 at the age of 90; the Rev. Richard John Neuhaus, the most visible American Catholic public intellectual of his day, who was 72 when he died January 8; Pio Cardinal Laghi, papal representative in the United States from 1980 to 1990, who was 86 at the time of his death January 11; and Archbishop Jean Jadot, Cardinal Laghi's predecessor, who died January 21 at the age of 99.

A common thread linked their careers. Cardinal Laghi, Cardinal Dulles, and Father Neuhaus -- each in his own way -- shouldered the burden of drawing the Church in the United States back from the precipice of self-destruction to which Archbishop Jadot, with encouragement from Rome, had unintentionally helped bring it during the 1970s.

Start with Archbishop Jadot. This bright churchman directed the national missions office in Belgium and was a chaplain to native troops in the Congo before he apparently caught some important person's eye and was brought into the diplomatic service of the Holy See. By 1974 he'd held top posts in the Far East and Africa. In May of that year, Pope Paul VI named him Vatican representative in the United States. (The title then, before U.S.-Vatican diplomatic relations, was apostolic delegate.)

Pope Paul wanted the American hierarchy shaken up and brought into the Vatican II era.

[livius]

the burden of drawing the Church in the United States back from the precipice of self-destruction to which Archbishop Jadot, with encouragement from Rome, had unintentionally helped bring it during the 1970s.

I disagree with the idea that it was unintentional, except perhaps on the part of Paul VI, who was just weak and confused. But other than that, the article is interesting.

[dangus]

>> Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., the leading American Catholic theologian of the postconciliar era, who died December 12 at the age of 90; the Rev. Richard John Neuhaus, the most visible American Catholic public intellectual of his day, who was 72 when he died January 8; Pio Cardinal Laghi, papal representative in the United States from 1980 to 1990, who was 86 at the time of his death January 11; and Archbishop Jean Jadot, Cardinal Laghi’s predecessor, who died January 21 at the age of 99. <<

Missed that piece about Laghi and Jadot dying. That adds two to the “in most need of thy mercy” list. The most diabolical schemes couldn’t wreak the havoc on American Catholicism that Jadot... and Laghi wasn’t much better. Jadot retired 25 years before he died, under the usual age of retirement. John Paul had removed im from his post in America four years older, and placed him under his nose... then retired him a few short years later. Maybe he realized something.