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Academic freedom, sex scandal parts of Pilarczyk's legacy

Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk

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By Tom Beyerlein, Staff Writer Updated 7:49 AM Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Daniel E. Pilarczyk is an intellectual, an author and a former educator who also has held national leadership positions in the Catholic church and taken controversial stands on political and social issues.

As he prepares for retirement, some local Catholics say his legacy will include his support of Catholic schools, his efforts to maintain academic freedom in Catholic universities and his teachings on a “consistent life ethic” that opposes both abortion and capital punishment.

“I often say I live in a diocese where we have a wonderful bishop,” said Dennis Doyle, a religious studies professor at the University of Dayton. “He’s set a tone here that’s helped me to experience the church in a positive way.”

But for some, Pilarczyk’s legacy will be forever tainted by his handling of the sex abuse scandal.

“The archbishop’s legacy includes the deflecting of responsibility for the abuse crisis,” said Kristine Ward, local chairwoman of the reform group Voice of the Faithful. “In addition, parishes and schools closed, the number of priests declined, and Catholics voted with their feet and their wallets. This can’t be the picture of a healthy diocese.”

Dennis Schnurr, the former bishop of Duluth and currently “coadjutor” archbishop, will replace Pilarczyk when Pope Benedict XVI accepts the Dayton native’s resignation.

UD’s rector, the Rev. Paul Marshall, said Pilarczyk has helped smooth tensions involved in merging parishes and requiring parishes to share priests in an age of shifting demographics and fewer priests.

The Rev. Lawrence Mierenfeld of Centerville’s Church of the Incarnation agrees. “He’s made some tough decisions, and those are never popular, but they have to be made and probably will have to continue to be made.”

Marshall and Doyle also said Pilarczyk in 2001 was instrumental in ensuring academic freedom in the nation’s Catholic universities by helping to craft an interpretation of a papal mandate requiring theology professors to be approved by the local bishop. Some feared the mandate would have a chilling effect on academic freedom, but “Archbishop Pilarczyk worked so it was a positive thing that emphasized the partnership between theologians and the bishop,” Marshall said.

Doyle, who served as a consultant on one of Pilarczyk’s books, said Pilarczyk is “an intellectual who respects other intellectuals. He’s willing to discuss issues without it always having to be a matter of authority.”

Doyle also noted Pilarczyk’s willingness to publish, as president of the national bishops’ conference, a 1991 open letter to President George H.W. Bush urging him to give sanctions more time to work rather than militarily forcing Iraqis from Kuwait in the first Gulf War.

And Doyle credited Pilarczyk for agreeing to speak at UD in 2004 about the priest child sexual abuse scandal. Pilarczyk defended the bishops’ reasoning in moving abusive priests to unsuspecting parishes, but acknowledged the practice was wrong and apologized.

Contact this reporter

at (937) 225-2264 or tbeyerlein@DaytonDailyNews.com.

Daniel E. Pilarczyk

Eighth Archbishop of Cincinnati

Aug. 12, 1934: Pilarczyk born in Dayton.
Dec. 20, 1959: Ordained as a priest after studying at the Pontifical Urban University in Rome.
1963-74: Faculty member and rector (1968-74) at the former St. Gregory Seminary in Cincinnati.
Dec. 20, 1974: Ordained as a bishop.
1974-82: Auxiliary bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati.
Dec. 20, 1982: Ordained as archbishop of Cincinnati, replacing Joseph Cardinal Bernardin.
1986-89: Vice president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.
1989-92: President of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Aug. 12, 2009: Pilarczyk turns 75, the age at which bishops must submit their resignations to the pope under church law.