tvc.dsj.org | March 20, 2018
COMMENTARY
19
The Passing of a Good Shepherd
By Rev. Ron Rolheiser, OMI
Theologian, teacher, award-winning
author, and President of the Oblate
School of Theology in San Antonio, TX
No community should botch its deaths. Last
month a wonderful leader within the faith commu-
nity in Canada died and it could profit us all to more
fully receive his spirit. How do we do that? It can
be helpful for us, I believe, to highlight those places
where his life, his energy, and his leadership more
particularly helped steady us in our faith and helped
us to use our own gifts more fully to serve God.
Who was this man? Joseph Neil MacNeil, Emeritus
Archbishop of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
I was lucky enough to have had him as my bishop
for the first eighteen years of my priesthood. He was
a good mentor and I needed one. I had just finished
seminary and, not unlike many a naïve young man
just turned loose in ministry, I had overly-rigid views
on what was wrong with the world and how to fix
that, views rooted more in personal immaturity
than in prudence, views in need of a lot of leveling
out. He was a guiding hand, not just for me but for
many others.
And this was a time as well where the church as
a whole was struggling for a deeper maturity. The
church was just engaging the reforms of Vatican II,
wondering whether it was going too far or not far
enough, and reeling at the same time from the radical
cultural and sexual changes of the late 1960s. Change
was everywhere. Nothing, church-wise or otherwise,
was as before. We were a pioneer generation ecclesi-
ally in need of new leadership.
He led us well, nothing too daring, nothing reac-
tionary, just good, steady, charitable leadership that
helped us, among other things, be more pastorally
sensitive, more ecumenical, less self-absorbed, less
By Gregory Kepferle
CEO, Catholic Charities of Santa Clara
County and President, Charities Housing
Development Corporation
The other day we held our annual planning re-
treat for Catholic Charities’ managers at a nearby
parish hall. We were in the middle of lunch when
a man walked in looking for something to eat. He
clearly had been living outside for a long time – his
clothes smelled, he had long unwashed hair and a
beard, skin tanned and crusted with dirt, his eyes
were bleary, and his speech slurred. Our team mem-
bers immediately welcomed him to join us, got him
a plate of food and kindly found him a place at their
table. When he finished his meal, he got up, mumbled
a few words, and left.
A few years ago, we had a board member who
had once been homeless, or as he said, “unhoused”
– Palo Alto was his home. He said that one thing he
appreciated about Catholic Charities was that we let
him say “No” to being helped, but always kept the
clerical, more open to lay involvement, and more
sensitive to the place of women. He kept things
steady but inching forward, even while properly
honoring the past.
Among his many gifts, three qualities of his lead-
ership, for me, particularly stand out as a challenge
for us all to live out our own discipleship more
deeply.
“In church parlance, a bishop,
an archbishop, a cardinal, or a pope
is considered A Prince of the Church.”
First, he could live with ambiguity and not panic
when tension seemed everywhere. He was not fright-
ened or put off by polarization and criticism. He
sorted them through with patience and charity. That
helped create space for a more-inclusive church, one
within which people of different temperaments and
ecclesiologies could still be within the same com-
munity. He kept his eyes on the big picture and not
on the various side-shows, skirmishes that so easily
deflect attention away from what’s important. Good
people carry tension so as to not let it spell over un-
necessarily onto others. Good leaders put up with
ambiguity so as to not resolve tensions prematurely.
He was a good person and a good leader. He could
be patient with unresolved tension.
Second, he understood the innate tension that
comes from our baptism wherein we are perennially
torn between two loyalties, that is, the tension be-
tween being loyal to the church and its dogmas and
rules on the one hand, and being loyal at the same
time to the fact that we are also meant to be universal
instruments of salvation who radiate God’s compas-
sion to everyone within all the churches and within
the world at large. Here’s one example of that: In the
face of a very messy and painful pastoral situation, I
once phoned him asking him what I should do. His
answer properly interfaced law and mercy: “Father,
you know the mind of the church, you know canon
law, you know my mind, and so you know what
ideally should be done here … but you also know
the principle of Epikeia, you are standing before the
pain of these people, and God has put you there.
You need to bring all of this together and make a
decision based on that. Tell me afterwards what you
decide and then I’ll tell you whether I agree or not.”
I did make a decision, phoned him afterwards, he
didn’t agree with me, but he thanked me for doing
what I did.
Finally, as a faith leader he understood the dif-
ference between catechesis and theology and he
honored and defended the special place of each of
them. Catechesis is needed to ground us; theology
is needed to stretch us. He understood that. As a
former President of a University who had done
graduate work at the University of Chicago, he wasn’t
threatened by theologians and generally came to our
defense when we were attacked. One of his pet say-
ings when one of his theological faculty came under
scrutiny or attack was simply: “They’re theologians!
They speculate. That’s what theologians do. They
aren’t catechists.” He offered an equal defense for
his catechists.
In church parlance, a bishop, an archbishop, a car-
dinal, or a pope is considered A Prince of the Church.
He was that, a Prince of the Church … not because
the church anointed him as such, but because he had
the intelligence, grace, and heart of a leader.
A Place at the Table
door open for him to come in when he was ready to
take his place at the table.
“You are welcome. You belong.
We do not judge you. We care for you.
We have plenty enough to share.”
In the Gospels,