Former Detroit shepherd celebrates 30 years as a bishop
Cardinal Maida arrives at his titular church in Rome, San Vitale Church, before the conclave that would elect Pope Francis in 2013. Cardinal Maida said he plans to return to Rome for Blessed John Paul II’s canonization in April.Detroit — Thirty years ago, Jan. 25, 1984, to be exact, the then pro-nuncio of the United States, Archbishop Pio Laghi, traveled from Washington, D.C., to Green Bay’s Cathedral of St. Francis Xavier to ordain a well-respected Church lawyer named Adam Maida as bishop of that rural town made famous by Vince Lombardi and a football team named after the local meat-packing industry.
Six years later, soon-to-be-St. Pope John Paul II appointed that same lawyer archbishop of Detroit, following in the footsteps of the prelate who ordained him in Pittsburgh, John Cardinal Dearden.
“In my chapel at home, I have a picture of (then-Pittsburgh Bishop Dearden) putting his hands on my head ordaining me a priest,” said Cardinal Maida, who spoke via telephone from South Carolina, where he spends the colds months of his retirement. “I think about that and figure what goes around comes around.”
“When Archbishop Dearden was a cardinal here in Detroit, I spoke with him and he said, ‘I ordained you a priest, not a lawyer,’” recalls Cardinal Maida fondly.
Cardinal Maida’s legal days were over when he got a call from Archbishop Laghi while at a health care conference in St. Louis. “He said, ‘the Holy Father wants to make you a bishop of Green Bay.’ That blew my mind,” Cardinal Maida said. “I had spent my life in service to the Church, in legal situations, going all over the country. Being a bishop was not in my periscope. I asked for a week to think about it and he said, ‘how about two hours.’ My life has been dedicated to the Church and God’s will, so I accepted the call.”
Detroit’s archbishop emeritus had to make a radical change not only in home base — steel country to cheese country — but an alteration in ministry. “I had to make a significant change to being a pastor and a bishop. No more being a lawyer. I just wasn’t thinking in those terms (about becoming a bishop) and it was a big change. It was different and challenging.”
Six years in Green Bay led to 19 years leading the Detroit flock, during which time (Nov. 26, 1994) he was made a cardinal by Pope John Paul II. He retired as archbishop in early 2009.
‘Great privilege’
Cardinal Maida considers participation in two conclaves — as an elector of Pope Benedict XVI in 2005 and as a participant in the pre-conclave meetings leading to the election of Pope Francis last year — as the pinnacle of his three decades as a bishop.
“That goes beyond my comprehension really, being involved in conclaves to elect two popes,” he said. “That’s got to be the highlight of my call as a bishop and a priest. One day when I’m before the Lord I’ll say, ‘how did you arrange this?’”
He describes being in a conclave as a very humbling experience. “When you’re in the conclave and you’re in the process, you feel so very, very small because the responsibility is probably the greatest I’ve ever had,” he explained. “You have a great sense of the Church. You have a great sense of the very serious matter before you.”
In retirement, Cardinal Maida gets to Rome a couple of times each year, for special occasions such as consistories of the College of Cardinals. He already has his airline ticket for Pope John Paul II’s canonization in April.
During the warmer months, His Eminence lives at the St. John Center in Plymouth, with his three years younger brother, Fr. Thaddeus Maida, a retired priest from the Diocese of Pittsburgh.
“I think when the Lord gives a vocation to a family, he should always put two in there so they can help each other out later in life,” chuckled Cardinal Maida, who uses an iPad to read the paper and stay connected to the world and calls golf “therapy” for his nagging age-related health issues. “I can say that no one rejoices in the limitations and health concerns that come with age, and being part of the human family I have to experience these limitations.”
He does, however, rejoice in the less-busy, more-quiet life of a retiree.
“The business that comes with being an archdiocesan bishop left little time for quiet prayer,” he said. “Now I can spend hours in prayer, in quiet contemplation, reading, reflecting on what’s happening in the world and being grateful to God for the great privilege I’ve had being called to be a priest, a bishop and cardinal to serve the Church and God’s people.”
Ministry of presence
Cardinal Maida had warm words for the job his successor, Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron, has done since taking over in 2009.
“I think he’s doing excellently,” Cardinal Maida said of his successor. “When I think about the challenges that face the Church, among them the secularization of our society, I think he’s been a magnificent leader and will continue to be a wonderful leader here.”
Since retiring, the cardinal said his own ministry has been adjusted yet again. Now, he said for example, he is able to spend more time praying for specific intentions. “Now I have a ministry of presence, to see people and to be with people, much more than a ministry of accomplishing things, and I love to be with people,” he said of his re-casted vocation. “One of the challenges is handling all of the invitations that you get. You can’t accommodate all of them.”
The cardinal is ever mindful of the example set by Pope John Paul II. “Toward the end, all he could do was go to the window and raise his hand in blessing, and he did it,” Cardinal Maida said. “I would hope that I can be faithful to my ministry to the end, to do whatever I can in whatever context I find myself, to be a disciple and an evangelizer and preach the Good News to the whole world.”
Tim Keenan is a freelance writer based in Farmington Hills.
