Raymond Hunthausen

His Excellency, The Most Reverend
Raymond Gerhardt Hunthausen
Archbishop of Seattle
Archdiocese Seattle
Appointed February 25, 1975
Installed May ??, 1975
Term ended August 21, 1991
Predecessor Thomas Arthur Connolly
Successor Thomas Joseph Murphy
Orders
Ordination June 1, 1946
Consecration August 30, 1962
by Egidio Vagnozzi, Bernard Joseph Topel, and William Joseph Condon
Personal details
Born (1921-08-21)August 21, 1921
Anaconda, Montana, U.S.
Died July 22, 2018(2018-07-22) (aged 96)
Previous post Bishop of Helena (1962–1975)
Motto Thy will be done
Styles of
Raymond Gerhardt Hunthausen
Reference style
Spoken style Your Excellency
Religious style Archbishop
Ordination history of
Raymond Hunthausen
History
Episcopal consecration
Consecrated by Egidio Vagnozzi
Date August 30, 1962
Episcopal succession
Bishops consecrated by Raymond Hunthausen as principal consecrator
William S. Skylstad May 12, 1977
Lawrence Welsh December 14, 1978

Raymond Gerhardt Hunthausen (August 21, 1921 – July 22, 2018) was an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Helena from 1962 to 1975 and as Archbishop of Seattle from 1975 to 1991. He was the last surviving American to have participated as a bishop in the Second Vatican Council.

Early life and education

The oldest of seven children, Raymond Hunthausen was born in Anaconda, Montana, to Anthony Gerhardt and Edna Marie (née Tuchscherer) Hunthausen.[1] His parents owned and operated a local grocery store.[2] He received his early education from the Ursuline nuns at the parochial school of St. Paul Church, and excelled academically and athletically during high school.[2]

He attended Carroll College in Helena, majoring in chemistry and graduating cum laude in 1943.[1] He considered pursuing a career as a chemical engineer or as a fighter pilot for the United States Air Force.[3] However, he was persuaded by Father Bernard Topel, his spiritual director and mathematics professor at Carroll who later became Bishop of Spokane, to enter the priesthood.[2][3] He began his studies at St. Edward Seminary in Kenmore, Washington, in the fall of 1943.[4]

Priesthood

Hunthausen was ordained a priest by Bishop Joseph Gilmore on June 1, 1946.[5] He returned to Carroll College, where he served as a professor of chemistry (1946–57) and a football and basketball coach (1953–57).[1] In 1953 he earned a Master's degree in science from the University of Notre Dame.[2] He served as president of Carroll College from 1957 to 1962. He was named a domestic prelate in 1958.[1]

Episcopal ministry

On July 8, 1962, Hunthausen was appointed the sixth Bishop of Helena by Pope John XXIII.[5] He received his episcopal consecration on the following August 30 from Archbishop Egidio Vagnozzi, with Bishops Bernard Topel and William Condon serving as co-consecrators.[5] As bishop of Helena, he was a Council Father at all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council. He was the newest and youngest American bishop at the start of the Council.

Starting in 1976 Hunthausen worked with Call to Action and sought to implement their program.

His tenure as bishop of Helena was marked by increased lay involvement in church matters, the establishment of a mission in Guatemala, the closure of several Catholic elementary and high schools, and the strengthening of religious education programs which function in every diocesan parish.

In 1982, Hunthausen withheld half of his income tax to protest the stockpiling of nuclear weapons and the Trident missile program which had a base nearby, in Puget Sound. In a speech, he said, "Trident is the Auschwitz of Puget Sound."[6] This tax resistance prompted the Internal Revenue Service to garnish his wages.

He was appointed Archbishop of Seattle, Washington by Pope Paul VI and retired on August 21, 1991, his 70th birthday.

Church investigation

As a result of the complaints surrounding his alleged deviations from church doctrine, in 1983 the Vatican authorized Cardinal Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, to launch an investigation. Archbishop (later Cardinal) James Hickey of Washington, DC, was named apostolic visitor to the Archdiocese of Seattle. Hickey's delegation met with Hunthausen and others to investigate his administrative and pastoral practices. Donald Wuerl, later Bishop of Pittsburgh and Archbishop of Washington, was controversially named an auxiliary bishop with special powers. According to Thomas Bokenkotter, "A resolution of the affair was finally announced by the Vatican in April (1987) after it accepted the report of a commission that recommended that Hunthausen's authority be restored and a Coadjutor Archbishop be appointed. Hunthausen stoutly maintains that his archdiocese has remained fundamentally the same and was never in violation of Vatican doctrine; nor has he had to alter the general direction of his ministry or compromise his liberal beliefs."[7]

Archbishop Hunthausen is remembered most for his support of the poor and disenfranchised. He was also a great advocate for the youth and encouraged better catechesis in Catholic parishes and Catholic parochial schools despite waning enrollment. In 1985, he helped establish the Institute for Theological Studies at Seattle University, which in 1996 evolved into the School of Theology and Ministry.

Archbishop Hunthausen retired in 1991 and resided near Helena, Montana, with his brother, Father Jack Hunthausen.[3] He continued to hear confessions once a week in East Helena. As of October 2011, Hunthausen was the last living American bishop to have attended all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council. On July 22, 2018, he died at the age of 96.

Awards

1982 Thomas Merton Award by the Thomas Merton Center for Peace and Justice

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Curtis, Georgina Pell (1961). The American Catholic Who's Who. XIV. Grosse Pointe, Michigan: Walter Romig.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Capace, Nancy (2000). Encyclopedia of Montana. Somerset Publishers, Inc.
  3. 1 2 3 "Ordination Milestones". The Montana Catholic. May 20, 2011. Archived from the original on September 27, 2011.
  4. ↑ "Raymond Hunthausen". People. December 22, 1986.
  5. 1 2 3 "Archbishop Raymond Gerhardt Hunthausen". Catholic-Hierarchy.org. David M. Cheney. Retrieved January 21, 2015.
  6. ↑ Amundson, Mavis "Local professor notes Hunthausen's influence" West Seattle Herald January 11, 1984
  7. ↑ A Concise History of the Catholic Church, Rev. and exp. ed. New York: Doubleday, 2004. 447.
Additional sources
  • John A. McCoy, A Still and Quiet Conscience: The Archbishop who Challenged a Pope, a President, and a Church, Orbis Books, 2015
Catholic Church titles
Preceded by
Thomas Arthur Connolly		 Archbishop of Seattle
1975–1991		 Succeeded by
Thomas Joseph Murphy
Preceded by
Joseph Michael Gilmore		 Bishop of Helena
1962–1975		 Succeeded by
Elden Francis Curtiss
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.