All The Pope's Men

By Richard N. Ostling

There is neither appeal nor recourse against a decision or decree of the Roman Pontiff.

-- Canon 333.3, Code of Canon Law

It is no secret that John Paul II is a man of strong -- and staunchly conservative -- convictions. Nor is it surprising that he has sought to fill the Roman Catholic hierarchy with clerics who insist on strict obedience to church teachings. In recent months, however, many of the faithful have been alarmed by the Pope's determination to override the sentiments of local clergy in order to get his way. Angry liberals in Vienna and Chur, Switzerland, have even resorted to blocking cathedral entrances to protest the consecration of new, archconservative bishops.

The most recent controversy came to a climax last week, when John Paul triumphed over strong local resistance and appointed Georg Eder, a conservative village priest, as Archbishop of Salzburg, Austria. It was the latest act in a long-running drama. Last month the Pope named an equally unpopular conservative as Archbishop of Cologne, West Germany, Europe's richest diocese. In January 1988 the Pontiff shocked the Irish clergy by picking a conservative metaphysician as Dublin's Archbishop. A few months before that, he had installed a longtime Vatican official as Primate of Brazil, where many bishops condone the leftist liberation theology that vexes the Vatican.

In the U.S. John Paul last year pursued this pattern with two important appointments. As Archbishop of Philadelphia, he chose Anthony Bevilacqua, 65, who had handled the ouster of a pro-choice nun in 1983. The see of Pittsburgh went to Donald Wuerl, 48, who had earlier been assigned to keep watch over Seattle's liberal Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen. Resentment over the Hunthausen affair is one cause of mistrust and disagreement between the Vatican and the U.S. hierarchy. In the hope of improving relations, several dozen U.S. bishops will travel to Rome in March for a highly unusual face-to- face meeting with the Pontiff.

Before the papacy gained control of the appointment process many centuries ago, bishops were elected by the local clergy and laity. A vestige of the older practice remains in a number of European cities, where panels of leading clergymen, known as cathedral chapters, still have an important role in choosing bishops. The bitterest recent conflicts have involved disagreements between these bodies and the Vatican.

Such was the case in Salzburg. Though formally announced only last week, Eder's appointment had long been anticipated -- and fervently opposed. Eder, who still celebrates Mass with his back to the congregation, blames sex education for promoting a "Communist takeover of our society" and deems AIDS a form of divine punishment. After giving grudging approval to his nomination, the Salzburg cathedral chapter publicly proclaimed its "severe conflict of conscience" about the selection process and criticized the rightward imbalance of the Pope's list.

The Salzburg controversy was particularly disturbing to many Austrians because it marked the third time in as many years that the Pope had imposed a conservative bishop on an unwilling flock. To succeed the progressive intellectual Franz Cardinal Konig as Archbishop of Vienna in 1986, John Paul chose an obscure provincial monk, Hans Hermann Groer. There was a louder uproar in 1987, when the Pope named theologian Kurt Krenn as one of Vienna's auxiliary bishops. One strike against Krenn, in opponents' eyes, is his link to Opus Dei, a controversial orthodox lay organization. "The polarization in the Austrian church has become frightening," laments Helmut Kratzl, another of Vienna's auxiliary bishops.

An equally bitter drama unfolded in Cologne last month, when the Pope broke a 15-month impasse by forcing through another controversial cleric. John Paul wanted to name Berlin's Joachim Cardinal Meisner, 55, whom he knows personally and trusts. But in proposing Meisner and two other conservatives to Cologne's cathedral chapter, the Pope bypassed the more moderate candidates suggested by local churchmen. In a rare act of defiance, the cathedral chapter refused to elect any of John Paul's men. The Vatican hinted that it might name an emergency apostolic administrator, as it often does in Communist lands. Just before Christmas, the chapter capitulated. Editorialized Cologne's daily Express: "The Pope has won, the church has lost."

Showing no remorse, Vatican officials predict more hard-line nominees. Papal envoys, says a Vatican insider, "are basically under sealed instructions to nominate conservatives. They will be pushing them into Brazil, France, also the U.S., even in the small appointments." Another official vigorously defends the Pope's men. They "are branded as conservative," he says, "but to conserve is also a positive thing. As we must conserve our resources or the environment, so we must conserve the church also." There is, however, a risk that growing disenchantment with John Paul's single-minded use of his power may ultimately alienate those whose allegiance he is seeking to strengthen.

With reporting by Gertraud Lessing/Vienna and Robert Moynihan/Rome