ARTICLES

A Man of the Church

A New Bishop for Oakland

By Phil Sevilla

In early January, Pope John Paul II announced the appointment of Detroit auxiliary bishop, Allen Vigneron, as coadjutor bishop of the Oakland diocese, with the right to succeed retiring Bishop John Cummins. On January 10, local Catholics in Oakland heard the news at early morning Masses.

Bishop Vigneron was ordained an auxiliary bishop in 1996. Prior assignments include associate pastor posts in Michigan. He taught philosophy and theology at Detroit's Sacred Heart Seminary and was appointed vicar general of the archdiocese of Detroit, vice-rector and academic dean at the seminary. He served on the staff of the Vatican secretariat of state office prior to being appointed, in 1994, the rector of Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit.

On January 14, Bishop Allen Vigneron spoke to me by phone.

What do you see as critical challenges for you in Oakland?

My first responsibility is to get to know the diocese. Then, once I have a sense of what's going on, to assist people in making the Word of God part of their life. I have the sense that the Bay Area, the Oakland diocese, is a place that has a lot of the dynamics, to a high degree -- intense dynamics -- of American culture; so I think it's about the dialogue between faith and culture.

How did your priestly vocation blossom?

I [am] one of six kids, the oldest. I have four brothers and a sister. I come from a rural parish [in which] at least one line of my family has lived since 1830. It's a village of French farmers, so that's why I have this French name. My vocation really blossomed through my experience in grade school. My parents are very solid in our faith, which is just part of our ordinary life, and the person who really was my inspiration in grade school was our principal. There was a sister, Mother Jane Francis, who had a great devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and taught us boys to be servers. She really communicated that devotion and I think that played a very important part in my vocation.

How do you pray?

The Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours are at the heart of it. My daily meditation is based on the Sacred Scripture and the form that I use most often is the imaginative contemplation of St. Ignatius; but I sometimes use the lectio divina as well, and the rosary.

How would you describe your "management style"?

I depend on learning as much as I can about a situation because I think, if you don't know the facts, it's hard to know how to apply the principles. I think managing by walking about means staying in touch with people's real concerns; and you want the truth. I agree with all those points because they make sense even in a secular matter; but the point is, the Second Vatican Council recaptured the Gospel truth that the faithful are the leaven and the light for the world, and our job as pastors is to support them in that. If we don't understand the real challenges that people face, then it's very hard to give them leadership. I also try to listen to other people. I like to talk things out with a group of people who can bring wisdom to a problem.

Catholics today experience deviations from the Church's norms in the liturgy. How would address that?

I accept the Church's teaching about the liturgy and her norms for the liturgy and I think these provide the script for the priest; but a priest is always going to have to use good judgment about how to apply the norms to a particular situation. That view is part and parcel of the way the Church understands her system of norms.

What about the role of sacred music in the liturgy?

We're coming to recognize more and more the place that our singing plays in the liturgy. I find as I read liturgists, they are more and more emphasizing that the music is not simply an ornament on the sacred action, but is an integral element to it. I think that point is also made in [the Vatican's document on the liturgy] Liturgiam Authenticam. The texts we sing are part of the liturgy. I think the scripture texts are paradigmatic for that. That's one of the key points of the Council -- the importance of sacred scripture as a witness to God's saving deeds, that these are the words in which God speaks to us about salvation and they're the way God gives us to speak back to Him. I think, actually, psalms are a very important part of the prayer life of the Church.

Do you see Catholics turning back to traditional liturgical expressions like Gregorian chant?

I think of tradition with a big "T"; and [then there are] little traditions, because there were things that were part of the life of the Church that were not of very high quality, like hymns that were somewhat based on music hall tunes and very sentimental. But I think the council says that there is a place for Gregorian chant to continue in the life of the faithful. I think that's true. I don't think its sufficient for our Church life today and I think, on the basis of what we have, we need to move towards a new reality.

When the Byzantine liturgy [the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom and of St. Basil] left the Greek-speaking countries to Russia and other Slavic-speaking places, it stayed the same, but it also became a very new thing. I believe that we have to encourage that kind of authentic development, so we need to look for something and find whatever it is for English that will do for us what the Gregorian chant did for the Latin, because I don't think the chant of itself is sufficient.

What's your opinion of the Tridentine Mass?

The Holy Father has certainly encouraged the indult for Ecclesia Dei, and I certainly want to respond to the leadership of the pope in that matter.

Were you part of the reform of Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit?

I don't read the history of this seminary that way. The real change in the life of the seminary occurred in 1988. At that point, Cardinal Szoka re-founded the seminary. It had been a four-year college seminary and he added the four years of theology. He asked then-Monsignor Nienstedt [today Bishop John Nienstedt of the diocese of New Ulm, Minnesota] to be the first rector of the re-founded seminary, and I was part of that team. I think I simply built on the vision of Cardinal Szoka as developed by that first rector and carried on under the leadership of Cardinal Maida. It really has been an attempt to take seriously the results of Cardinal Baum's visit to the seminary -- to take seriously that result and also [John Paul II's document] Pastores Dabo Vobis with it's emphasis on the specific identity of the priest as configured to Christ as shepherd.

I tell the seminarians every Christian is configured to Christ. Every Christian is another Christ, but each of us has a specific way of making Christ present, because the richness of the presence of Christ is too great for anyone to make it all present. The priest's job, his vocation, is to make the pastoral love of Jesus present.

Are vocations a high priority for you?

Oh yes, I think pretty much all the dioceses, with some exceptions, need more priests. I believe God invites enough of us to take up the work, but the question is to accept the call. Part of what has to happen in vocation recruitment is to assist people in hearing God's call. There are problems about all vocations in the Church -- young Catholic Christians accepting the way of life God is calling them to live. Part of what we need to do to have more priests is to assist young men in hearing the call.

Do you have any favorite modern philosophers? What was your doctoral thesis on?

I encountered at the Catholic University an excellent professor who is truly a philosopher, Monsignor Robert Sokolowski. I wrote on Edmund Husserl's analysis of vague judgment. Not all people agree with me on this. Edmund Husserl offers an approach to subjectivity, one of the central themes of contemporary culture. He offers an approach that solves the dilemma that modern philosophy has gotten itself into and he provides a way to recover within this very contemporary perspective the wisdom of the ancients.

The Catholic voice has been suppressed in the public arena, especially in California. What are your comments on that?

I am always conscious that it's the lay faithful who have the principal duty to bring the Gospel light to the civil order. I do not think it's appropriate to try to substitute for that. I think the ministry, the service that a bishop can do, is to encourage the lay faithful to change what needs to change; without it our civil order will become corrupt.

Do you plan to teach?

In the very first days of my arrival, I'd like to offer Mass in all of the parishes. I'd like to get out Sundays and daily Masses. I agree with Lumen Gentium, and Lumen Gentium is not innovative. This is the common teaching of the Church, Trent, the great Councils, Scripture itself -- one, if not the principal task of the bishop, is to be a teacher. I accept that very much as part of my ministry.

I will come and do my very best and I believe that God will take whatever little I have to offer and do some good. The head of our college of bishops, the Holy Father [appointed] me to take what my predecessor, Bishop Cummins, has done and build on that and act in communion with the pope and the other bishops, to help people know Christ. The Church is not the center; it's Christ who's the center. Someone pointed out that we need to take very seriously the document on the constitution of the Church of the Second Vatican Council, which begins by speaking of Christ. The Church is a means for people to know Christ. [End of interview.]

Some understanding of Bishop Vigneron's character can be gained from statements he made at the bishops' meeting in Dallas last June. Responding to a question about the appropriateness of prospective seminarians with a homosexual dysfunction, he said, "I fully hold with Church teaching that says same-sex orientation is a disorder. If a candidate presents himself with a same-sex disorder, at the very least there are a lot of serious issues to be thought through, in terms of the goal, which is celibate chastity and priestly chastity, which has its own nuptial character. At this time in history, we may need to exclude people with this disorder entirely."

To get a better view of Bishop Vigneron as a seminary rector, on January 13 I spoke to Father Patrick Halfpenny, an old high school and college friend of Bishop Vigneron. Father Halfpenny is currently in his seventh year as vice-rector at Sacred Heart Seminary.

What would you say were Bishop Vigneron's major accomplishments at Sacred Heart?

He brought a great vision and a clarity about priestly formation, as well as formation for ecclesial lay ministers. He has a deep and great love for the Church. He's a very clear thinker. He works in a very collaborative way; he listens to other people; he looks for their insights and values them before he makes a decision and moves forward.

What is his approach to seminary training with regards to liturgy?

He is a member of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' committee on the liturgy. He is very familiar with the documents and the new General Instruction for the Roman Missal. He's offered good liturgical formation according to the light that comes from Church documents. He sees the Eucharist as the center of the life of a priest and the center of the life of the Church and has emphasized that and continually draws the whole seminary community to a deeper and deeper appreciation of that reality.

How orthodox is the Sacred Heart Seminary?

Bishop Vigneron as the rector has called all of us who serve under him to take seriously the documents that have come from the magisterium and from the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, the decree on priestly formation from the Second Vatican Council, the fourth edition of the program on priestly formation and, more recently, the Holy Father's Pastores Dabo Vobis. We've done our utmost to implement the direction for priestly formation which the Holy Father and bishops have given us.

How does the bishop see the role of laity in performing ministerial roles?

The mission statement here in the seminary states very clearly that our principal focus and our principal reason for existing is the formation of candidates for priesthood. We also offer programs for ecclesial lay ministers as well. Bishop Vigneron follows the mind of the Church on these matters.

What do you think the bishop's perspective would be on blurring the liturgical roles of the laity and the priesthood?

It's important to be faithful with the mind of the Church in these matters. Here at the seminary, he has always given a very clear direction about the clear identity of the ordained priest and the clear identity and distinction from the ecclesial lay minister -- that they complement one another for the building up of the body of Christ.

What are the bishop's views on Marian devotions?

He has a great devotion to our Lady and he has encouraged that. It is an integral part of the program of priestly formation and encouraged in the documents. He has by his leadership encouraged that as well.

Private devotions -- are those part of seminary training?

We have a monthly prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, a weekly Eucharistic Holy Hour; and participation in adoration on a monthly basis. We had a Eucharistic congress as a part of our observance of the archdiocese's three-hundred-year anniversary just a few years ago.

What are Bishop Vigneron's views on problem groups like Call to Action, who are actively fomenting dissent against magisterial teaching?

He would encourage, even require, orthodoxy, when people take the profession of faith and swear the oath before ordination. Our goal is for them to have full understanding and consent of the will.

What are the bishop's views on issues like abortion, homosexuality, and contraception?

He speaks with the mind of the Church and he preaches what the Church teaches and believes. I believe that every student here has a clear understanding of the Church's teaching about the moral evil of abortion, and Bishop Vigneron has been unequivocal about that.

How did he treat the issues of contraception and Humane Vitae?

[This is] covered in canon law and marriage, which is jointly taught by the moral law profs and the canon law prof. But that's not the only place that would be addressed. [End of interview.]

According to Father Joseph Fessio, founder of Ignatius Press and newly appointed chancellor of Ave Maria University, Bishop Vigneron was instrumental in hiring one of the best American moral ethicists to teach at Sacred Heart Seminary -- Dr. Janet Smith, formerly of the University of Dallas. He also appointed another orthodox professor of systematic theology (whom Father Fessio called "a wonderful dogmatic theologian"), Dr. Robert Fastiggi.

When asked how he thought the new bishop from Michigan would fare in California -- particularly in the liberal Bay Area -- Fessio said, "it will be difficult, but he has a similar experience in Michigan. They have a pro-abortion governor who was elected, who calls himself a Catholic. Bishop Vigneron is experienced with that. But he's very personable. He's a reasonable person, he'll deal with anybody, but he's a man of the Church. He's a man of the faith who loves Jesus Christ. I don't really care what his political views are or how he handles things. I believe he won't do anything inconsistent with his own conscience -- and his conscience is formed by the Church."

Father Fessio spoke positively about Vigneron's leadership skills. "He spearheaded this movement to have a plenary council," said Fessio. "His desire to do something significant and spiritual that would help restore confidence in the Church, and for the Church to do what she should be doing. That's very laudable. For an auxiliary bishop to be able to head a group that has archbishops and ordinaries, that's quite something, quite extraordinary. I'm sure the people are going to be very happy with him as a bishop." The extraordinary plenary council, to which Father Fessio alluded, was an initiative put forward last year by eight reform-minded American bishops, including Bishop Vigneron. A plenary council is the highest form of a national episcopal convocation presided over by one of the bishops in the national conference, appointed by the pope, who most often sends a delegate to oversee the council.

For Bishop Vigneron's new flock in Oakland, Father Fessio had this advice: "get to know him and let him know you support him. Let him know that you're not going to be agitating for immediate changes, but that you hope that he will continue to move in the right direction of restoring orthodoxy and proper celebration of the liturgy and a real vocation program that attracts to the priesthood young men who are really qualified." If the Oakland faithful do this for Bishop Vigneron, said Fessio, "you'll help him!"

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