The Krol Era

The president of the U.S. Catholic bishops conference is more than just the symbolic leader of America's 48 million Roman Catholics. In his three-year term the president has much to say about selecting members of the church's national bureaucracy and can influence the appointment of bishops. Moreover, his philosophical cast can determine what direction the church's national program takes. Thus, in Washington last week, there was far more than ceremonial significance in the U.S. bishops' vote to give the office to Philadelphia's John Cardinal Krol, the American hierarchy's outstanding conservative.

A brilliant administrator and a man who speaks eleven languages, Krol (Polish for "king") is closely attuned to the attitudes of Pope Paul VI. He is fairly progressive on social principles but traditional on doctrine and church government. He has issued strong attacks on the arms race and unequal distribution of world wealth, but emphatically approved the endorsement of priestly celibacy at the recent world synod of bishops in Rome.

Even before his election last week, Krol probably had more influence in the Vatican than any other American bishop, outshining his predecessor in the U.S. presidency, Detroit's moderately progressive John Cardinal Dearden. At the Rome synod, Krol was the only bishop from North America elected to serve on the council that will prepare the next synod.

Big Bastion. The key to Krol's style is the big Archdiocese of Philadelphia, which is to the church what Mayor Daley's Chicago is to the Democratic Party: a bastion of strength and discipline in the midst of turmoil. Priestly dissent is rare. The huge parochial school system remains intact, with remarkably low tuitions (after Pennsylvania's grants to private schools were banned by the U.S. Supreme Court, the state legislature voted $47 million a year in "voucher" aid to parents of private school pupils). This fall Krol capped a decade of construction costing $120 million by opening a new downtown office building.

Krol's human relations commission is credited with notable progress on poverty and race relations. But the diocese has been unable to ordain a single black priest. A year ago, the local priests' council issued a 60-page booklet listing its past recommendations to the cardinal. He has followed some, but without making any direct response to the council. Many others he has ignored--including recommendations for such widely followed practices as a personnel board to give priests a say in parish placement and diocesan encouragement of parish advisory councils.

Though he rejects all labels, Krol sees himself as a middleman, true to Vat ican Council II in restraining "people who are trying to run away with so-called renewal." The son of Polish immigrants in Cleveland, he was a food-store manager, first became interested in the priesthood when he was troubled by his inability to defend the church against the barbs of a Protestant friend. Krol has spent most of his career in canon law classrooms and chancery offices. In a rapid climb of the priestly pyramid, he was ordained at the age of 26, became auxiliary bishop of the Cleveland diocese at 42 and Archbishop of Philadelphia at 50. Now 61, he is healthy and hardworking, yet enjoys relaxing in the sprawling Archdiocesan mansion.

At last week's meeting of U.S. bishops, Krol is believed to have opposed the bishops' historic decision to open the sessions to the press and a limited number of Catholic observers (the ballots were secret). Though he favors a degree of ecumenical interchange, he most likely joined the majority of bishops in rejecting the idea of wider pulpit exchanges with Protestants.

At a press conference after his election, Krol cited unity as a prime need of the U.S. Catholic church. But to the church's left-of-center elements, including many staffers at the bishops' headquarters in Washington, D.C., the question is whether a man of Krol's views can be a unifier. Already black Catholic activists are barely concealing their hostility toward him. Nevertheless, says Frank Bonnike, president of the National Federation of Priests' Councils: "The bishop-priest problem is so great in the church today that the need for solutions will override the man."

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