Concerns us all

The battle over Abp. Rembert Weakland's plans to renovate St. John the Evangelist Cathedral in Milwaukee concerns us all.

As Abp. Weakland said in a letter to priests, parish directors and deacons, the issues involved "touch the very nature of the church and how it functions."

Briefly, Abp. Weakland decided, as leader of the Church of Milwaukee, that his cathedral needed renovation to conform to post Vatican II rules on church design and liturgical understandings.

As usually happens when a bishop plans to renovate his cathedral, some did not like the plans. Some of them even hired a canon lawyer and sought Vatican intervention. Such attempts happen occasionally, but not so publicly.

To explain his position Abp. Weakland went to Rome to meet with Card. Jorge Medina Estevez, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments. After the meeting, Abp. Weakland said the cardinal "seemed satisfied with my explanation of the planned changes for the cathedral."

That said, the archbishop must have felt blind-sided when the cardinal faxed him a letter saying that portions of the renovation plan violated church and liturgical law and asked Abp. Weakland to revise the project.

A representative of the Milwaukee Archdiocese said the letter clarifies the areas of renovation in question and serves as a go-ahead to proceed with the work under way. He also said Abp. Weakland has supplied the cardinal with additional information. Plus, the archbishop hired his own canon lawyer.

Card. Medina, he said, "has not proven that I broke any liturgical norms or canons in making the decisions that were rightfully mine to make as the local bishop of this church."

It's often pointed out that the church is not a democracy. True, and as Abp. Weakland noted, the church also is "not a corporation with head offices in Rome and branch offices around the world; we are not a military body; we are not a monarchy. We are a distinct breed: a hierarchical people of God governed by a college of bishops whose head is the pope."

That means bishops and archbishops have authority to govern their dioceses and to make decisions on matters such as the renovation of their cathedrals without Vatican interference, except in cases of heresy. Certainly while there's a clear difference in understanding of how to apply church law and theology to a cathedral renovation, there is no heresy involved.

In defending his plans as "being not only liturgically correct, sound and beneficial, but also as being my prerogative to make," Abp. Weakland added that "architecture should serve liturgy, not vice versa."

The situation has left observers with several questions: Why would a Vatican official publicly embarrass and humiliate an archbishop? How will it affect ecumenical relations, especially with the Orthodox? How can respect for authority in the church be strengthened when those on top respect it so little?