A Cardinal Besieged

In 1965, when John Cody arrived by train to become Archbishop of Chicago, he was greeted by the governor, the mayor, a crowd of well-wishers and three brass bands. Cody came to town with a reputation as the tough-minded, hard-driving archbishop who had quickly raised millions of dollars for parochial-school expansion in Kansas City, Mo., and later pushed through the racial integration of Roman Catholic schools in New Orleans. Lately the brass bands have been silent. The same stubborn streak that won Cody his early acclaim gradually worked against him in the nation's biggest archdiocese, which has 2.5 million parishioners.

As bishops elsewhere, in the spirit of the Second Vatican Council, were becoming more approachable, Cody seemed to many priests to grow ever more remote and authoritarian. He did, however, accomplish a good deal. He rejuvenated the Catholic Charities program, established a pension fund and medical insurance for priests and lay employees, and created a Priests' Senate to consult with him. But as one of its members complained last week, "What is the purpose of consultation if the cardinal chooses to ignore everything that is recommended to him?"

Last May Cody's announcement that he was closing four parochial schools in black neighborhoods brought to a head long-simmering dissatisfaction with his administration. Given his New Orleans record and the fact that the cardinal has allocated $21 million in subsidies to various projects in Chicago's inner city, it was ironic that he ran aground over black education. It was not the decision itself that caused the trouble. Enrollment at the schools had been dwindling steadily, and Cody argued that the costs had become prohibitive. One thing that upset some priests was that the school shutdowns came four months after Cody had unveiled a closed-circuit educational-TV network for the archdiocese that cost $4 million to build and will take $750,000 a year to run. At the time, the cardinal told reporters that there were plenty of surplus funds around. More infuriating was the manner in which Cody acted, not even consulting the Priests' Senate or the archdiocesan school board, whose constitution, approved by Cody in 1972, gives it a say in such matters.

A Tyrant Imposed. When priestly, lay and neighborhood groups protested, Cody sent an aide to the June meeting of the Priests' Senate to read a statement saying flatly that "in the law of the Catholic Church, in each diocese, there is but one authority--the Ordinary"--that is, the bishop in charge.

This I-am-the-law approach was too much for the Priests' Senate and the Association of Chicago Priests, an independent group that has tangled with the cardinal before. The association's leaders declared, "In the ultimate analysis, we are not working for Cardinal Cody. We work for the Lord and for his people, especially for the poor." The protest was joined by acid-penned Sociologist and Journalist Father Andrew Greeley, who wrote in the July-August issue of the association's newsletter that Cody is a "madcap tyrant who has been imposed upon us ... Manly, forthright and honest dialogue" has failed, he said, and all that can be hoped for now is Cody's removal by higher-ups. "The days of the present administration may well be numbered," wrote Greeley. "Its madness is well known in other parts of the church. One cannot imagine that higher ecclesiastical authorities will permit it to last much longer."

At least 20 priests are known to have written Rome about the problem, and the officers of the Priests' Senate have discussed various kinds of appeals. They decided that the uproar from such tactics would only harm the church. Senate President Raymond Goedert, a nationally recognized expert on canon law who has emerged as the major counterforce to Cody in Catholic Chicago, seems to be advocating some such action however. "It is my opinion," he wrote to members of the senate, "that we are faced with a pastoral problem of serious proportion, and the only way to a peaceful solution would be through the help of higher authority."

The school board, in charge of the city's 478 parochial schools, is equally perturbed. Its chairman, Management Consultant Vito Petruzelli, sent to Chicago-area parishioners a letter saying that Cody had "systematically suppressed" the board and had made false statements to it in two instances. Unless Cody responds to its satisfaction, the school board is threatening to suspend itself indefinitely in protest when it meets this week. The Priests' Senate may do the same in September.

Cody, 67, would normally stay in office untU he is 75. If pressures against him continue to build, the Vatican will probably move slowly and very reluctantly and give him, perhaps, a post in Rome. The cardinal, who had a mild heart attack in May, has been on a vacation since June 30, and only his closest associates know his whereabouts. They say he will be back in town some time soon to take charge of what is, by all accounts, a deteriorating situation.

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