Raymond Hunthausen

Early life and education

The oldest of seven children, Raymond Hunthausen was born in Anaconda, Montana, to Anthony Gerhardt and Edna Marie (née Tuchscherer) Hunthausen. His parents owned and operated a local grocery store. He received his early education from the Ursuline nuns at the parochial school of St. Paul Church, and excelled academically and athletically during high school.

He attended Carroll College in Helena, majoring in chemistry and graduating cum laude in 1943. He considered pursuing a career as a chemical engineer or as a fighter pilot for the United States Air Force. However, he was persuaded by Father Bernard Topel, his spiritual director and mathematics professor at Carroll who later became Bishop of Spokane, to enter the priesthood. He began his studies at St. Edward Seminary in Kenmore, Washington, in the fall of 1943.

Priesthood

Hunthausen was ordained a priest by Bishop Joseph Gilmore on June 1, 1946. He returned to Carroll College, where he served as a professor of chemistry (1946–57) and a football and basketball coach (1953–57). In 1953 he earned a Master's degree in science from the University of Notre Dame. He served as president of Carroll College from 1957 to 1962. He was named a domestic prelate in 1958.

Episcopal career

On July 8, 1962, Hunthausen was appointed the sixth Bishop of Helena by Pope John XXIII. He received his episcopal consecration on the following August 30 from Archbishop Egidio Vagnozzi, with Bishops Bernard Topel and William Condon serving as co-consecrators. As bishop of Helena, he was a council father at all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council. He was the newest and youngest American bishop at the start of the Council.

Starting in 1976 Hunthausen worked with Call to Action and sought to implement their program. This program amounted to making the Catholic Church indistinguishable on doctrinal points for The Episcoapl Church. In 1977 he endorsed Gay Pride Week in Seattle. He later went on to argue that for some people homosexual actions should not be viewed as morally wrong.

His tenure as bishop of Helena was marked by increased lay involvement in church matters, the establishment of a mission in Guatemala, the closure of several Catholic elementary and high schools, and the strengthening of religious education programs which function in every diocesan parish.

He was appointed Archbishop of Seattle, Washington by Pope Paul VI and retired effective August 21, 1991 (his 70th birthday), after years of controversies that included an investigation coordinated by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger. During the investigation Hunthausen coordinated a concerted public relations attack on the actions of Ratsinger and his associatiates, while disingenously trying to claim he was not coordinating the mass protest.

His early retirement allowed for his coadjutor to step in early and begin smoothing the waters of the beleaguered diocese.

As bishop, like most of his contemporary Catholic bishops in the US, Hunthausen shifted priests accused of sexual abuse of minors from parish to parish and left them with access to children. Some of his actions seem to have contributed to the Diocese of Helena later going into bankruuptcy. He also threatened suits against those with information against some priests if they went public with that information.

Nuclear weapons

In 1982, Hunthausen withheld half of his income tax to protest the stockpiling of nuclear weapons and the Trident missile program which had a base nearby, in Puget Sound. In a speech, he said, “Trident is the Auschwitz of Puget Sound.” This tax resistance prompted the Internal Revenue Service to garnish his wages.

Church investigation

As a result of the complaints surrounding his deviations from church doctrine, in 1983 the Vatican authorized Cardinal Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, to launch an investigation. Archbishop (later Cardinal) James Hickey of Washington, DC, was named apostolic visitor to the archdiocese of Seattle. Hickey's delegation met with Hunthausen and others to investigate his administrative and pastoral practices. The result of the visitation was a 1985 letter from Cardinal Ratzinger to Archbishop Hunthausen which summarized recommended changes to be made in the Seattle Archdiocese. Among other things it was found that Hunthausen had consistently lied about his knowledge of the operations of his diocese during the investigation.

Ratzinger found that Hunthausen had failed to accept the teaching authority of Catholic Church leadership, allowed misunderstandings of the mission of the Catholic Church in his diocese, followed lax policies on divorce out of line with Catholic teaching, violated sacramental rules, improperly trained priests, politicized the issue of womenpriests, and portrayed as ideas of the Catholic teaching on homosexuality ideas that were not part of such teaching.

Hunthausen ignored most of the directives of Ratzinger. He did not stop sponsoring the pro-homosexual action group he was instucted to stop sponsoring for three years, and he continued to minister to those with same gender attraction in ways that ignored or defied church teaching.

In January 1986, Pope John Paul II appointed Donald Wuerl as auxiliary bishop of Seattle. Bishop Wuerl was told he was being given faculties in five liturgical and administrative areas over and above Archbishop Hunthausen; the Archbishop was informed differently. In a later press statement, Archbishop Hunthausen acknowledged having received on July 1, 1986, written confirmation from the Holy See that Bishop Wuerl had indeed received what the Archbishop described as "complete and final" authority in certain areas. By May 1987, however, the irregular situation had become untenable and Bishop Wuerl was removed from his position. Bishop Wuerl went on to be appointed Bishop of Pittsburgh and later to be made a Cardinal as Archbishop of Washington.

Shortly after, in a more traditional model, the Vatican appointed Bishop Thomas J. Murphy of Great Falls, Montana, as coadjutor archbishop of Seattle. Upon Hunthausen's retirement four years later, Murphy succeeded him as archbishop.

According to Thomas Bokenkotter, "A resolution of the affair was finally announced by the Vatican in April 1989 after it accepted the report of a commission that recommended that Hunthausen’s authority be restored and a Coadjutor Archbishop be appointed. Hunthausen stoutly maintains that his archdiocese has remained fundamentally the same and was never in violation of Vatican doctrine; nor has he had to alter the general direction of his ministry or compromise his liberal beliefs."

Despite the attention surrounding the visitation, Archbishop Hunthausen is remembered most for his support of the poor and disenfranchised. He was also a great advocate for the youth and encouraged better catechesis in Catholic parishes and Catholic parochial schools despite waning enrollment. In 1985, he helped establish the Institute for Theological Studies at Seattle University, which in 1996 evolved into the School of Theology and Ministry.

Archbishop Hunthausen retired in 1991 and currently resides near Helena, Montana, with his brother, Father Jack Hunthausen. He still hears confessions once a week in East Helena. As of October 2011, Hunthausen is the last living American bishop to have attended all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council.

Awards

1982 Thomas Merton Award by the Thomas Merton Center for Peace and Justice