Western Washington’s foremost Catholic leader has sent his letter of resignation to the pope upon turning 75, kicking off what could be a two-year wait for the appointment of a new archbishop to serve more than a half-million Catholics in the region.
Archbishop Alex Brunett is one of 27 active U.S. bishops who, by the end of this year, will have reached 75 — the age when they must turn in their resignation and are eligible for retirement.
Because of the backlog, it’s been taking two years on average for the Vatican to replace bishops in the United States, Brunett said.
Pope Benedict XVI could pick a successor to Brunett more quickly. But if Brunett is allowed to continue, the Vatican would send a letter back saying the pope has accepted Brunett’s resignation nunc pro tunc, or “now for then.”
That’s fine with Brunett. Energetic and in good health, he wrote the pope on Jan. 16, saying he’s willing to continue leading the Archdiocese of Seattle.
“If I had my choice, I’d like to stay for a little bit longer — as long as I’m healthy and can do the job and I’m being effective,” Brunett said in an interview last week.
Local priests interviewed by The News Tribune seemed to agree their leader has done his job well. The Rev. Michael McDermott, pastor of St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Tacoma, said Brunett is “very positive and very hopeful.”
McDermott has experience to draw from; he was an administrator under Brunett’s two predecessors, Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen and the late Archbishop Thomas Murphy.
“At heart he is a pastor,” McDermott said of Brunett. “He cares about people.”
Following church law and protocol, Brunett sent his letter of resignation to the pope the day before his 75th birthday on Jan. 17. Brunett said he has no idea when he’ll receive a response to his confidential letter, sent via a diplomatic pouch to the Vatican.
Since he was appointed archbishop for Western Washington in 1997, Brunett has led the archdiocese in numerical and physical growth, bolstered by expanding Hispanic and Asian populations. The Catholic Church is the region’s largest church group.
His actions — whether pastoral appointments or establishing a foundation for education — shape Catholic parishes and schools in Tacoma, such as St. Charles Borromeo parish and school and Jesuit-run Bellarmine Preparatory School.
Brunett also has stepped up social services to people in need, doubling the number of residents in low-income housing.
Under his leadership, two new high schools are being launched this fall, including Pope John Paul II High School in Lacey. Numerous parish buildings have gone up. Earlier this month, Brunett blessed new offices and the renovated school and gymnasium at St. Michael Catholic Church in Olympia.
And he has led the archdiocese through the crisis of sex abuse claims against priests without having to file for bankruptcy, as the dioceses in Spokane and Portland did.
From 1987 to 2007, the Seattle archdiocese paid $31 million for settlements, counseling and attorneys fees for about 250 sex abuse victims. That total includes $4 million in 2007 alone.
Brunett called the abuse of victims “a terrible thing.”
“I have been always concerned about the victims first of all, as well as the priests who are sometimes falsely accused,” he said.
But a member and former director of the Seattle chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests is highly critical of how Brunett has dealt with victims of priest sex abuse.
“I think he’s done a terrible job,” said Jim Biteman of Renton, a victim who said he has an ongoing lawsuit against the archdiocese. “There was very little sympathy toward the victims and the survivors. There’s been very little transparency.”
From 1950 to 2008, 54 priests working in the archdiocese were accused of sex abuse. All but one accusation dates prior to 1984.
Brunett said he would like to resolve the remaining claims within the next two years.
Two cases remain involving parish priests still on leave. In addition, 12 members of the Congregation of Christian Brothers religious order were accused of abuse. Those accusations, made in lawsuits, center on the Christian Brothers’ Briscoe Memorial School for Boys, a boarding school the brothers operated in Kent until the early 1970s.
All but one of the alleged abuses occurred before Brunett became archbishop, but he said he’s accepted that “I’m the heir of that past history.”
“I tried to clean it up,” Brunett said. “And now I think we have one of the strongest programs in the United States, maybe in the world.”
When he retires, Brunett said he will leave the archdiocese bigger, stronger and with a better foundation than when he came. It’s his responsibility to be the spiritual leader for the people of the archdiocese.
“I have to be,” Brunett said. “That’s my job — to motivate people and to encourage them. I love to do that.”
He said he remains invigorated by his job. While his office and home are near St. James Cathedral on Seattle’s First Hill, Brunett travels throughout the 28,000-square-mile archdiocese for Masses, confirmations and parish anniversaries. He’s gone every weekend, driving his blue 2006 Jeep Grand Cherokee.
“Thank God I had a Jeep for this Christmas season,” Brunett said. “I could go anywhere.”
“I think he’s done some very good things, particularly for Catholic education,” said the Rev. John Renggli, pastor of Our Lady Queen of Heaven Catholic Church in Spanaway.
Renggli also said Brunett has done a good job of dealing with the clergy sex abuse scandal.
McDermott, pastor at St. Charles Borromeo, said Brunett matches the skills of priests with the needs of parishes. And Brunett has developed important central staff support to help parishes manage personnel, finances and their buildings, McDermott said.
His pastoral care, even for a stranger, came through a couple of years ago when Brunett was eating at a Seattle restaurant.
A waiter noticed him and asked if the archbishop would hear his confession. The waiter, who told Brunett he had drifted from his faith, cleared out a back room. Brunett heard the man confess his sin.
For his 75th birthday, Brunett not only wrote a letter of resignation. He received 1,500 birthday cards from priests, members of religious orders, and parishioners.
School children wrote on one drawing, “You are our shepherd.”
“I took one day off and I read them all,” Brunett said.
He said will respond to every card with a personal letter.
“I answer every letter I get,” Brunett said. “I’ve always done that.”
McDermott said he expects Brunett will be allowed to continue to serve for about three more years.
“That seems to be the pattern,” McDermott said. “I think he would be allowed to stay. I don’t see any reason why he wouldn’t be.”
That also appears to be the view of Archbishop Pietro Sambi, the pope’s representative to the United States.
At the U.S. bishops’ conference in November in Washington, D.C., Sambi said he expected Brunett and Bishop William Skylstad of Spokane, who turns 75 in March, would receive letters saying they will continue to serve, Brunett said.
“He kind of looked at me from head to toe,” Brunett recalled. Then Sambi said, “‘You look pretty healthy. I think you’ll probably get a letter saying that you can stay on for awhile.’”
Brunett said he’s open to whatever the Vatican decides.
“It’s out of his hands,” McDermott said. “You just have to wait and see.”
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