c. 1997 Religion News Service

(Andrew M. Greeley is a Roman Catholic priest, best-selling novelist and a sociologist at the University of Chicago National Opinion Research Center. Check out his home page at http://www.agreeley.com or contact him via e-mail at agreel(at)aol.com.)

UNDATED _ When Bishop William E. McManus died in early March, the average score of the U.S. church hierarchy on intelligence, courage, and candor plummeted dramatically. He was that kind of giant.

At the time of his death, McManus was one of the few prelates left in the U.S. Catholic Church who had experienced _ as a bishop _ the exuberance of the years immediately following the Second Vatican Council, an enthusiasm that matched his own natural ebullience.

Although often in poor health in recent years, he became more outspoken and more feisty with each advancing year. After his retirement as bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Ind., he could speak at meetings of the American hierarchy but not vote. He delighted in the comment by other bishops that they would give him back the vote if he would forgo the right of speech.

A liberal, a man of vision, and an able administrator, he supervised first the national Catholic education office and then the Catholic schools in the archdiocese of Chicago. In the later role, he presided over the enormous expansion of Catholic schools at a time when church leadership still believed in Catholic schools, a faith he never lost himself.

Like all great leaders, he made mistakes. But unlike most bishops, he knew how to apologize with grace and charm.

One of the most fascinating legends he left behind is the story of a visit with the Apostolic Delegate _ the Vatican’s envoy to the U.S. church. It happened in a hospital in Georgetown just before McManus was to undergo very dangerous surgery.”I may face God tomorrow,”he is reported to have said to the envoy.”I don’t want to do that without having told you while I was still alive that you have to get that crazy so and so out of Chicago!” The delegate tried, but two popes lost their nerve at the last minute and so there was a scandal at the end of Cardinal John Cody’s madcap and disastrous administration from which the archdiocese of Chicago has yet to fully recover.

McManus and I wrote the first systematic study of Catholic financial contributions. We discovered, to his dismay, that Catholic contributions _ as a proportion of income _ had declined from 2.2 percent in the early 1960s to 1.1 percent in the late 1980s.”What’s happening,”he often asked.”They’re angry,”I would reply.

At first he could not believe the laity were angry. But a year or so after the results were published he admitted he agreed with me.”Real angry,”he said.

Even today, most bishops don’t have the intelligence or the courage to face that truth.

Bishops aren’t brave and honest like McManus any more _ too bad for the church. Some recent examples are telling:

_ Bishop Nicholas Datillo of Harrisburg, Pa., refused to attend a meeting in honor of Sister Helen Prejean, the anti-death penalty nun who’s story was told in the film,”Dead Man Walking.”His spokesman said he was concerned Prejean might be”soft”on abortion and might depart from church teaching in a book she is writing. Nothing she had ever said, but something she might say in the future!

_ Bishop William Higi of Lafayette, Ind., denounced a newspaper story about the shameful pedophile situation in his diocese _ 16 current and former priests _ as a product of”clever spins and a pre-conceived agenda.” Bill McManus, on the other hand, was a credit to the office of bishop.

Even at the end of his life, people in his Chicago parish would flock to Mass celebrated by him because his preaching was honest, forthright, and intelligent.

How many bishops can one say that of today?

God rest Bill and grant him eternal happiness. We will not see his likes again.

MJP END GREELEY