Szoka plans to be active in retirement
Jun 27, 2006
He says he'll help in metro parishes
(Detroit Free Press, June 26, 2006) Cardinal Edmund Szoka, who led the Archdiocese of Detroit in the 1980s, is looking forward to pitching in with masses at metro Detroit Catholic parishes and spending part of his retirement years in the area after his 16-year stint at the Vatican ends.
"I'd be more than willing to help in the parishes on Sunday and hear confessions and do whatever I can do," Szoka said in a telephone interview Friday from his Vatican quarters behind St. Peter's Basilica. "I don't stop being a priest because I'm retiring."
On Sept. 15, Szoka will step down as governor of the Vatican City State, a position to which Pope John Paul II appointed him in 1997. His retirement will come one day after he turns 79.
But on Friday, Szoka said he'll stay mostly in Rome for a year until his 80th birthday, to serve out his terms on five Vatican congregations that oversee matters such as declaring Catholic saints and appointing Catholic bishops throughout the world. After that, Szoka said he'd like to spend the warm-weather months in Michigan and winters in Italy, where he's entitled to a Vatican apartment during his lifetime.
Ned McGrath, an archdiocese spokesman, said local parishes, struggling with a priest shortage, would welcome Szoka's assistance.
"It's our good fortune that Cardinal Szoka would want to continue to use his gifts and talents in service to the church, and especially here in the Archdiocese of Detroit," McGrath said. "He will bring a unique and valuable pastoral presence to Catholics of all ages in southeast Michigan."
Rosanne DiMambro, 55, of Oakland Township said she'd enjoy an opportunity to see Szoka say mass at her parish, St. Andrew Catholic Church in Rochester.
"That would be thrilling after all the service he's done," DiMambro said. "I think the congregation would just be thrilled. That would be like having an actor or famous person in our midst."
Szoka went to the Vatican in 1990, serving as a budget director who helped balance the books and computerize operations. In his current role, Szoka administered a budget of about $200 million, oversaw a staff of 1,600 (including 63 gardeners) and orchestrated a growth in Vatican revenues from sales in its museums and stores.
When Pope John Paul II summoned Szoka to Rome, it was after the cardinal had alienated many metro Detroit Catholics with a heavy-handed process to close about 30 Detroit churches.
Yet, his efforts were eventually repeated in other U.S. cities with declining and changing Catholic demographics. This year, Detroit Cardinal Adam Maida instituted another process of church closings, mergers and realignments.
Szoka visits Detroit periodically, staying in an apartment at Sacred Heart Seminary. But he said he'll be looking for a larger home to accommodate Sister Damiana and Sister Hyacinth, the two Polish nuns who've helped run his household since he moved to the Vatican.
"They've been with me for 16 years. They're like my family here. I wouldn't go without them," Szoka said Friday.
In retirement, he is looking forward to reading and enjoying the outdoors. He walks an hour every day.
"I don't think I'll find that kind of retirement burdensome at all. I like to keep exercising as often as I can," he said. "I may do some visiting Up North while I'm there."
Szoka participated in the papal conclave last year that elected Pope Benedict XVI, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. This week, Benedict accepted Szoka's retirement.
Szoka, a Grand Rapids native, said he'll vacation in Detroit in August and has been worried about the troubles facing the auto industry.
"I pray every day that, if it's the Lord's will, he will bring back the auto industry very quickly for all these people who depend on it for a living," Szoka said.
Szoka plans to be active in retirement