Cd. Szoka looks to help local priests
Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published June 30, 2006
Detroit – Getting better acquainted with the early Church Fathers and lending a hand in local parishes are among Cardinal Edmund C. Szoka's intentions for his retirement.
"Of course, I'll still be a priest, and Detroit needs the help of more priests. I could help out at parishes on the weekends, celebrating Mass and hearing confessions," Cardinal Szoka said Monday about how he could continue to serve once he is retired from all Vatican duties.
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Cardinal Edmumd C. Szoka after his golden jubilee Mass in 2004. | Pope Benedict XVI announced June 22 that he accepted the former Detroit archbishop's resignation as president of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State, but asked him to stay on until Sept. 15 when Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, the Vatican's foreign minister, would take the helm.
That will be one day after Cardinal Szoka turns 79. But he will stay at the Vatican for another year, continuing to serve as a member of five Vatican congregations until his 80th birthday.
"Then I will be free of all responsibilities here," he said in a telephone interview from his apartment in the Governor's Palace on the Vatican grounds.
After that, Cardinal Szoka said he would like to spend half of each year back in Detroit, where he was archbishop from 1981 to 1990, and half of it at the new apartment he will have within the 109-acre city state. "I miss Detroit. I missed very much living there, and I still miss it," he said.
The cardinal said he will be looking for a house in the Detroit area, rather than live in the apartment he currently has at Sacred Heart Major Seminary.
"There are two Polish nuns who have been my housekeepers for 16 years, and I will need room for them too," he explained.
Time to read, travel
As to his other hopes for his retirement, Cardinal Szoka said, "I like to read, and there are a lot of books I haven't had time to read," mentioning especially two multi-volume collections he owns – one of the writings of the early Church Fathers and one on the lives of the popes from the Renaissance on.
"I'd also like to maybe do some writing and maybe some travel," he continued, saying he has wanted to visit Australia, New Zealand and the smaller island nations of the South Seas area known as Oceania.
Cardinal Szoka's Vatican career has taken him to many European countries and to parts of South American and Asia, as well, but China is another destination he would like to visit, he said.
The best thing about his 16 years at the Vatican was spending time with Pope John Paul II, in the cardinal's view: "I served under him 15 years, and got to know him well, and he was a great inspiration to me."
The late Holy Father always invited Cardinal Szoka for dinner on Christmas Day and Easter Day, as well as some other times each year. "It was always a very special time for me when I could be with him. He was such a great man and a saint," he said.
Challenges, accomplishments
Cardinal Szoka said the greatest challenge of his work for the Vatican was turning around the Vatican's budget deficit during his first job as President of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See – an accomplishment for which he has drawn wide acclaim. "They had had a deficit for 22 straight years, and it wound up being 23 years, but we eliminated that," he said.
As "governor" of Vatican City State, the post office, museums, gardeners, police, garbage collectors, fire department, and water, telephone and electrical systems all report to him.
Under his governorship, a new entrance to the Vatican Museums was completed and two underground parking garages opened.
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Pope John Paul and then-Archbishop Edmund C. Szoka tour the Pontiac Silverdome in the Popemobile prior to celebrating Mass, Sept. 19, 1977. | Among the changes he has wrought in his nine years has been to find new ways to earn money for this mini-state that collects no taxes. "We converted the old train station into a beautiful department store," he gave as an example.
Living at the Vatican and being close to the Holy Father have definitely had an impact on him, Cardinal Szoka said.
"I have a greater sense of the universality of the Church, of the mission of the Church, and of the presence of Christ in the Church, which I see reflected in the people who come here every day," he said.
It has strengthened his faith, inspired him, and "given me great hope for the future," the cardinal added.
Praised for service
News of Cardinal Szoka's impending retirement prompted praise for his service to the Church, and especially his leadership of the Archdiocese of Detroit, from his successor and those who worked with him here.
"Since his ordination on June 5, 1954, Cardinal Szoka has given himself wholeheartedly to whatever the Church asked of him. His 52 years of priestly and episcopal ministry have had a vast and comprehensive influence in the life of the Church – in the state of Michigan and, indeed, throughout the world," Cardinal Adam Maida said June 22.
Cardinal Szoka "has established a long and distinguished track record of diligent, insightful, and strong leadership" as founding bishop of the Gaylord Diocese, archbishop of Detroit for nine years, and then in the two Vatican posts he has held since leaving Detroit in 1990, Cardinal Maida continued.
Grand Rapids Bishop Walter Hurley, who served as judicial vicar and moderator of the Curia of the Detroit Archdiocese under Cardinal Szoka, "There is absolutely no doubt that he has had a significant impact on the life of the Church in Michigan."
Cardinal Szoka faced some very difficult issues, such as the closing of several dozen parishes in 1989, Bishop Hurley continued.
"He was deeply concerned about the life of the Church and the priests of the diocese. I really enjoyed working with him because he had this deep love for the Church, an instinct about the right thing to do, and a courageousness about him when it came to taking on issues. He is a great Churchman," the bishop added.
The present moderator of the Curia, Msgr. John Zenz, said the archdiocese had been blessed by Cardinal Szoka's leadership, saying he made "a decisive impact."
The addition of a graduate school to Sacred Heart Major Seminary, the establishment of the Catholic Services Appeal, launching of the CTND cable TV channel, and the reorganization and computerization of the Central Services departments of the archdiocese, especially the Metropolitan Tribunal, were among the highlights of Cardinal Szoka's tenure here, Msgr. Zenz continued.
The monsignor was director of religious education and later administrative secretary and chancellor under Cardinal Szoka.
In matters of faith, Cardinal Szoka articulated the Church's teaching and discipline on the sacrament of penance, encouraged development of RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) programs throughout the archdiocese, and encouraged perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, he said.
Prayer and dedication
Msgr. Michael LeFevre, rector of the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament, said the chance to serve as Cardinal Szoka's secretary from 1988 to 1990 had been a great opportunity.
"I was always edified by how much prayer was a part of his life," he said, adding that he believes the controversy over the parish closings "probably drove him even more to prayer."
Msgr. LeFevre said Cardinal Szoka felt deeply for the parishioners and the priests who were losing their parishes.
Of Cardinal Szoka's accomplishments, Msgr. LeFevre said the long-term benefits of the CSA "have been phenomenal."
And the cardinal's reorganization of the Tribunal has been a great blessing for people of the archdiocese, he continued: "When I was ordained (in 1982), it took three to four years for an annulment case to go through the Tribunal. By the time he was called to Rome, it was down to about a year," Msgr. LeFevre added.
Gaylord Bishop Patrick Cooney said he owes the cardinal a debt of gratitude for "the wonderful work he did in establishing the Gaylord Diocese — he was very creative and imaginative."
Bishop Dale Melczek of Gary, Ind., who also worked with Cardinal Szoka, as chancellor/vicar general of the Detroit Archdiocese and was ordained by him to the episcopate as a Detroit auxiliary bishop, said, "I've never met a man who has been so completely dedicated to God and to the Church."
And he said the cardinal's commitment to prayer and consultation was inspiring.
"As we pray in the Lord's Prayer, 'Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done' – that seemed to characterize what he was always trying to do," Bishop Melczek added.
Cindy Wooden of Catholic News Service contributed to this story.
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