A Quiet Crusader
Election gives Texas bishop a forum for views

By Deborah Kovach Caldwell
Dallas Morning News
March 23, 1996

A conversation with Bishop Joseph Fiorenza of Galveston-Houston is a bit bewildering. He's cordial and helpful, but he doesn't reveal much.

His friends and colleagues say plenty: That the new National Conference of Catholic Bishops vice president - the first bishop from a Southern diocese elected to a top position in the powerful conference - is a modest, shy man who prefers to stay in the background. He's a generous host. He cares deeply about his church and likes to play the role of mediator. He's theologically traditional but on the cutting edge on social justice issues. He's trusted and respected by the other Texas bishops.

"He's always known how to be in the right poker game, and he plays with a very straight face," said the Rev. Frank Dietz, a United Church of Christ pastor and former director of the Texas Conference of Churches who's known Bishop Fiorenza for 30 years.

"He doesn't talk a lot. He does more."

What Bishop Fiorenza, 65, has done during his 11 years as Galveston-Houston's bishop and as chairman from 1990-93 of the Campaign for Human Development, the church's domestic poverty program, is focus on the needy. Observers say it is this work that earned him votes last November when he was elected to a three-year term as vice president of the bishops' conference. By tradition, the position leads to the presidency.

"The bishops are not looking for prophets who will shake the boat," the Rev. Thomas Reese, a fellow at the Woodstock Center at Georgetown University and an expert on the American Catholic bishops, wrote in his book, A Flock of Shepherds. "Rather they look for team players who reflect the consensus of the body itself."

But Father Reese said Bishop Fiorenza represents more to his brother bishops than a meek yes-man.

"He's very, very well-liked by people involved in social justice," Father Reese said in an interview. "In a way, this election was the bishops' response to the growing individualism in our country and the growing retreat from the poor. They still shed tears over the poor."

Bishop Charles Grahmann of the Diocese of Dallas believes Bishop Fiorenza's care for marginalized people springs from his growing up in Beaumont at a time when blacks experienced overt discrimination.

"He saw the differences that existed in society and the way people were treated," Bishop Grahmann said. "A lot of us growing up in that generation would have had strong feelings about it."

Bishop Grahmann, who has known Bishop Fiorenza since 1960 when the two were young priests, said they were both part of a group that met in the early 1960s to discuss Texas church issues. Bishop Grahmann expects Bishop Fiorenza will take his regional concerns to the American church hierarchy.

"I believe he will bring a new sense to the life of the church, a sense that comes out of the experience of the Hispanic presence in the Southwest and also the southern experience of African-Americans," Bishop Grahmann said. "In the future, a lot of decisions made by the conference of bishops won't be so heavily rooted in the church in the Northeast."

As president, Bishop Fiorenza will lead the American Catholic bishops as they make policy and speak out on national and international issues.

In a recent interview, he still seemed surprised by his election and the duties ahead. He said he planned for now simply to serve the current president, Bishop Anthony Pilla of Cleveland, and to deal patiently with all the extra time demands a national position brings.

"I think the work of the conference is pretty well set and will go on as it has in the past," he said.

He downplayed the importance of his being the first bishop from a Southern diocese elected to the leadership of the bishops' conference, which has traditionally been dominated by the upper Midwest and Northeast.

"It just means that Catholicism has a greater presence in the South than it did a generation ago, and in many places in the South the church is one of the larger Christian denominations," Bishop Fiorenza said.

That's a contrast from the days when he was growing up in East Texas, where Catholics were scarce. He said he escaped isolation in the shelter of his church, parochial school and Italian neighborhood.

"In a sense I was always in a Catholic environment," he said.

"In the neighborhood I grew up in there were a number of Catholics.

It was not as isolating a situation as it was in many parts of the South. So being around a large extended family and going to Catholic schools, I was constantly around Catholics."

Bishop Fiorenza was educated at St. Mary's Seminary in LaPorte, Texas, and was ordained in the Galveston-Houston diocese in 1954, where he later served as diocesan director of the Campaign for Human Development. He was ordained bishop of San Angelo in 1979 and was appointed bishop of Galveston-Houston in 1984. From 1987-88 he served as chairman of the Campaign for Human Development's oversight committee.

The growth of Catholics in Texas, primarily because of migration from Mexico and the Northeast, is one of his primary concerns. Dozens of his parishes have tripled in size in the last decade, but there aren't enough priests to care for new members, he said. Bishop Fiorenza said he hopes the church's message of morality will inspire the flock to produce more priests.

"We would like to emphasize strengthening family life, bringing moral teachings into the public arena and being very open to the whole problem of immigration being batted around today," he said.

"We believe it's a biblical value to welcome the stranger and care for the poor. And of course a high priority is the reverence for life, particularly the unborn child."

Bishop Fiorenza said he'll continue to support the 26-year-old Campaign for Human Development, which makes grants nationally and locally to grass-roots groups working to empower the needy.

"It's a program that's had remarkable success around the country," he said. "I just think that it has such a high approval rating in the bishops' conference that they are very supportive of the campaign to break the cycle of poverty. Right now there are a lot of proposed government cutbacks on social programs and more of a burden on churches, so the campaign fulfills a greater need now than 25 years ago."

The Rev. Joe Hacala, former executive director of the campaign, said he admires the bishop's resolve, even in the face of criticism.

In the late 1980s the campaign came under attack as a tool of the "radical left" from Catholic conservatives. Bishop Fiorenza responded by calling the accusations "baseless and scurrilous." He said the campaign was founded because the bishops "felt that no longer was it enough to give poor people food, clothing and shelter; the time had come to also assist the poorest among us to 'break the hellish cycle of poverty' and build a better life for themselves and their children."When the bishops debated whether or not to make the campaign a formal standing committee of their conference, Bishop Fiorenza presented the proposal. The bishops agreed to the change.

"A lot of that had to do with the credibility and respect Bishop Fiorenza had," Father Hacala said.

And now it is his time to be fully recognized, Father Hacala said.

"He surfaced in a quiet way" from among 11 nominees, Father Hacala said. "He came from the people, and that was recognized by his peers. He is an authentic person, not a flashy person. I just totally trust him."