Roman Catholics: New Bishop for St. Louis

ROMAN CATHOLICS

Eight months after the death of Joseph Cardinal Ritter, St. Louis Catholics finally got a new archbishop last week. He is the Most Rev. John Joseph Carberry, 63, Bishop of Columbus, Ohio, for the past three years. Born in Brooklyn, Carberry studied at the ecclesiastical boot camp for future U.S. bishops, the North American College in Rome, and is currently chairman of the U.S. hierarchy’s Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs. Last month Carberry became the first Catholic bishop to receive the Protestant Ohio Council of Churches’ annual “Pastor of Pastors” award. He is considered slightly more of a theological conservative than his open-minded predecessor.

Since the St. Louis Archdiocese is traditionally represented by a cardinal, it was only natural that the Pope would pick Ritter’s successor with considerable care. Nonetheless, the delay in filling the see was unusually long. One reason may be the dissension within the archdiocese between advocates of renewal and more cautious elements, which began even before Ritter’s death. In 1965, for example, a group of 30 priests and laymen drew up a sweeping reform program, including the creation of an archdiocesan synod to extend the spirit of the Second Vatican Council. Although sympathetic to the idea, Ritter felt that the reforming priests were going too far, eventually transferred some of them to obscure posts in the see. Apparently uninterested in taking on so demanding and troublesome an assignment, at least two bishops are reported to have turned down the St. Louis archbishopric before Carberry said yes.