Vatican II inspired bishop to listen, then
get out of the laitys way
By ARTHUR
JONES NCR Staff Victoria, British Columbia
Call it a response to the art of
being a bishop. It happened a decade ago, a hesitant, tentative letter from an
artist at the end of the 1989 Victoria diocesan Festival of the Arts.
The artist, Dolores Pflanz, a self-described fringe
Catholic, said that because of the arts festival, which had been part of
the dioceses 1986-91 Peoples Synod, she found I
did have something to offer the church -- pictorial statements about Creation
and its Creator.
Pflanz, of Port Alberni on Vancouver Island in the territory of
the Victoria diocese, wrote, Please continue to draw out us
fringe Catholics creatively.
Drawing people out creatively as Catholics, trying to involve them
ever deeper in shaping their church, is precisely what Remi De Roo,
Victorias bishop for 36 years, has attempted to do. His vehicle for
encouraging people to shape the church: the teaching of the Second Vatican
Council (1962-65). He is practically transfixed by Vatican II.
De Roo comes across as an intense man but doesnt want to be
-- hes trying to get in touch with his feminine side, he said during an
interview at the Pastoral Center here.
Currently a little wan -- hes recovering from hepatitis
picked up following in the footsteps of St. Paul (by air-conditioned bus) in
Turkey and Greece -- De Roo is an avid walker, keen cross-country skier, and
relaxes listening to cello and organ music.
Hes simultaneously shy yet vigorous, outspoken and direct.
The shyness -- and an appreciation of the arts, he said -- come from his
mother; the directness from his father.
Some await better days
The De Roos were a large farm family in Swan Lake, Manitoba, where
close kin still farm two spreads and have family gatherings every five years.
De Roos was a hard life of tough winters and the Great Depression. His
rural background and his farming parents and grandparents run through his
conversation like a refrain.
The other De Roo refrain is the council. He and Pope John Paul II
are now among the final few, the last bishops still in office who were at all
four sessions.
Admittedly, De Roo attended only the final 10 days of the initial
session as a freshly minted 37-year-old prelate. But once there he was
extremely active. The Canadians fielded a strong and well-organized episcopal
team at Vatican II.
But in Victoria these days, thats all in the past. What the
Vancouver Island dioceses Catholics see is Vatican IIs results --
such as University of Victoria Catholic chaplain Kate Fagan preaching Sunday
evenings at nearby Holy Cross Parish, or blessing weddings and baptizing
babies. Theres a quiet Canadian satisfaction to it all -- most people
talked these things out during the Peoples Synod, called by
De Roo, who then got out of the way and let the laity get on with saying what
church should mean in this place.
The synod spawned its own 280-page book: Forward in the
Spirit, a fine, personality-studded compilation of those years.
Catholic Victoria has its foibles and, like elsewhere, young
people here hit and miss as church-attending Catholics. And not everyone agrees
with De Roo. As Patricia C. Brady remarks in her 1986 book, Has Anything
Really Changed? The Diocese of Victoria Since Vatican II, The more
successful the implementation appears among the majority, the more clearly do
the few groups stand out which have so far resisted the renewal. She said
that the groups resisting renewal -- such as Catholics United for the Faith or
the followers of the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who was excommunicated --
tend to be quite vocal.
And De Roos retirement in February 1999 will not be mourned
by all. As a recent letter in the Island Catholic News said,
Bad news is good news to what one might nearly describe
as a large, almost underground church in the diocese, waiting, rosaries in
hand, for better days.
Animadvertants to one side, in Victorias Catholic heart
there appears what one might nearly describe as a genuineness to the search.
Theyre tolerant, these Catholics. Thats also the word most
frequently applied to De Roo. Tolerant and flexible.
Flexible? Within diocesan boundaries are 6,000 or so native
peoples of three distinct Indian nations. Brady writes about Oblate Br.
Terrance McNamara who, two decades ago, newly initiated as a dancer in the
Coast Salish tradition of the Long House, wanted to be ordained.
But the Long House required his weekly attendance during the dance
season. That would make seminary attendance very difficult. De Roo permitted
McNamara, while living and working with the native peoples, to pursue his
studies under the bishops direction. And the Oblates allowed McNamara to
attend seminary in two fall sessions rather than sequentially.
Brady calls this a rare instance in the modern Western
church of preparatory studies for the priesthood so pursued.
De Roo, born on Feb. 24, 1924, and ordained for the St. Boniface,
Manitoba, diocese in 1950, has a doctorate in sacred theology from the
Angelicum in Rome. He served in St. Boniface as assistant priest and later
pastor before being named Victorias bishop in December 1962.
His new coadjutor, Bishop Raymond Roussin, 59, formerly Bishop of
Gravelbourg, Saskatchewan, a Marianist, is already in town. Hes a fellow
St. Boniface, Manitoba, native, and word around town is that Victoria should
consider itself very fortunate to have Roussin in De Roos progressive
wake. (Fortune has smiled on Roussin, too. Vancouver Island has the mildest
weather in Canada.)
De Roo has been active in the Canadian Bishops Conference,
was a founding member of the World Conference of Religions for Peace and is
author or co-author of a half dozen books. It was one of those De Roo books --
In the Eye of the Catholic Storm, written with Mary Jo Leddy and Douglas
Roche -- that attracted Fagan to the diocese two years ago.
Fagan recalled that on reading the book she said, Wow!
Thats exciting. I can imagine working for someone like that in a place
like that.
Even so, it wasnt until the Victoria interview that the
dual-citizened Notre Dame master of divinity graduate learned shed be
doing baptisms and weddings. Id been trained to do it all,
said Fagan, spent three years breaking down my insecurities about doing
it and then found a place where I could do it. I thought Id be in my 50s
before I found such a place. Shes 28.
De Roo did not even sit in on Fagans interview.
Remis big on subsidiarity, said Fagan. He abided by the
appointment committees decisions.
Experiencing Catholicism
At Notre Dame, Fagan was with 12,000 Catholics. The University of
Victoria has 12,000 students, 130 of them self-identified Catholics. Fagan does
a lot of pastoral counseling, crisis counseling -- its a two-week wait at
the university counseling center -- on issues ranging from marriage problems
among graduate students to freshman Who am I? questions.
The young Canadian Catholics here dont have a clear
idea of what it means to be Catholic, said Fagan, except what
theyve picked up at home. But theyre ready to have Catholic
experiences and have you throw out challenges or affirm what theyve been
doing. That can mean anything from social service to saying the rosary.
Students who are not Catholics -- the chaplaincy is interfaith -- come along
for the rosary, too. They think its, Wow, thats
neat, said Fagan. One Protestant said, I wish we had
something like it.
Ecumenical activity is coming easier to Fagan -- product of
table-banging, church-discussing Irish Catholics on both sides of the family --
for her boyfriend is a Protestant minister. They work on sermons together.
How do Fagans devout parents respond to their ministerial
daughter? My father tries very hard to understand, and my mothers
just finishing her degree in pastoral studies in Seattle, said Fagan.
We talked following an evening Mass.
Does Fagan believe she should/could be a priest? Not as long
as the priesthood is celibate, she said. I want to have a family
some day -- thats part of my calling. I certainly feel called to do a lot
of the work that has been traditionally done by a priest.
Which is De Roos point precisely.
At Vatican II, says council historian Fr. Giles Routhier of
Quebec, De Roo was one of a team of three, with St. Boniface Bishop Maurice
Baudoux and his auxiliary, Bishop Antoine Hicault, pushing new thinking on the
womens role and the lay apostolate in the church during the
councils final session. Routhier currently is working at the Catholic
University of America in Washington as part of the Orbis multi-volume Vatican
II history project.
Today, De Roo says, the church has a long way to go to
recognize the feminine dimension of every human and not get caught in the macho
trap. And we certainly need to continue promoting the variety of services and
ministries that women can perform in the church. I think weve made some
progress here in that regard.
Equally, he said, we need to appreciate the work
of the women theologians. They are helping us to re-examine the whole body of
doctrine from the point of view of the heart. Weve been so locked in our
heads, in our intellects. De Roo usually has his intellect gainfully
employed. Theres another book en route. Its working title is Even
Greater Things, the ongoing challenge, said De Roo, of Vatican II,
particularly for laypeople, in the task of transforming society.
His co-authors are Bernard and Mae Daly of Ottowa. Maes a
singer and music teacher. Journalist Bernard was the Canadian bishops
press officer throughout Vatican II.
As committed as he is to the laity, however, De Roo understands
the priests key role, the risks of overwork and burnout.
My most painful experience, he said, has been to
watch the occasional priest get discouraged, embittered, finally give up, slip
away into anonymity. Talented, dedicated. Just slip into the woods, almost,
lost.
The antidote, De Roo contended, is small support groups. Burn-out
comes to talented, dedicated clergy and laypeople who give their all when they
are not supported emotionally, he said.
Has he, in nearly 40 years as head of Victoria, ever experienced
burnout?
No, happily not. Ive faced it more than once,
said De Roo. But we learned as kids on the farm, from my parents and
grandparents, that you dont give up when things get rough. You just hang
in there. You do the best you can until, eventually, things straighten
themselves out.
Thats why he is hanging on to Vatican II. Maintaining the
council momentum is a personal quest.
When he retires in February hell take a 12-month sabbatical
renewing friendships. Yet three months into it hell be in Miami to
deliver a paper at the International Catholic Theological Association
meeting.
The meetings theme is the creation of doctrine. De
Roos taking along the work of Victorias Peoples
Synod. He wants the worlds theologians to see how the laity create
doctrine in a quiet corner of Canada.
De Roo knows theres an art to it.
National Catholic Reporter, December 25,
1998
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