An archbishop speaks up.

Readers will find Archbishop John Quinn's remarkable Campion Hall centennial lecture, delivered last month at Oxford, printed in its entirety beginning on page 11. Though its length may appear forbidding, we encourage those concerned about the future of the Catholic church to read the archbishop's measured, yet urgent analysis of the papacy, the prospects for Christian unity, and the sometimes even more difficult search for comity among Catholics themselves. A response to Pope John Paul II's encyclical Ut unum sint, Quinn's faithful deliberations are both brave and humbling.

It will not be surprising if readers have mixed reactions to the speech: gratitude for the author's fair-minded intelligence and truth-telling, and apprehension about the ways the archbishop's remarks may be distorted by those who equate open debate with disloyalty. Archbishop Quinn has suffered in the past for his honesty. Indeed, it is saddening, but sadly understandable, that he must pre-emptively mount a defense of both his loyalty to the church and his orthodoxy in order to offer a nuanced and obviously heartfelt critique of an institution and community to which he has devoted his life. If Archbishop Quinn's remarks are judged insubordinate or subversive, it is hard to imagine what sort of episcopal relationship Rome or its more fevered cheerleaders can honestly want short of abject servility.

Quinn makes many telling observations and suggestions, including headline-catching proposals to reform the Roman curia and convene an ecumenical council to coincide with the millennium. Reforming the curia is, as the saying goes, a project for the ages--one that Quinn notes has been overdue since before the Reformation. Still, in an age of modern communications and travel and concomitant bureaucratic centralization, the curia's usurpation of episcopal authority is a greater danger than ever.

A third Vatican council may prove a healing and providential sign of unity for Catholics as well as other Christians. As Quinn suggests, the regular convening of councils might also help bring about a renewed sense of how the bishops and the pope in fact share in a single authority. But whatever the response to these suggestions, it should not divert attention from the fundamental issues of collegiality Quinn takes such pains to illuminate.

In this regard, the former archbishop of San Francisco argues that while Pope John Paul II is often eager to "collaborate" with his fellow bishops, true collegiality entails something more substantive than collaboration. Initiative in church governance must not rest solely with the pope. A willingness to think of hierarchical authority arising at many levels within the church and a recognition of the need to exercise that authority with prudence and pastoral understanding are necessities little appreciated in many Roman quarters today. Other churches, Quinn candidly warns, look at how Rome deals with its own bishops and with diversity in pastoral and theological practice, and are skeptical about the costs of reunification. If the papacy is to become an effective sign and tool of Christian unity, the legitimate authority of local bishops and bishops' conferences must be respected. Citing the promulgation of the Catechism, the agendas of international synods, and especially the appointment of bishops as examples of Rome's overreaching, Quinn reminds us that "bishops are not mere legates of the pope"; that "a collegiality which consists largely in embracing decisions which have been made by higher authority is a very attenuated collegiality."

No one doubts the complexity or the political delicacy of many of the issues that Archbishop Quinn would have the church address more forthrightly. Fair-minded Christians and others can disagree about contraception, divorce, homosexuality, priestly celibacy, inclusive language, the ordination of women, and even the nature of papal infallibility. Indeed, at times the contemporary Catholic church seems more a sign of disunity than of anything else. Yet the ecclesial vision laid out by Archbishop Quinn is as orthodox as it is subtle and confident. For those with eyes to see and ears to hear, this plea for the church to take up a more parliamentary approach to episcopal decision making and to adopt a less defensive attitude to the challenges of our time--especially with regard to the role of women--is itself a sign of unity. Archbishop Quinn's response to the pope is a true gift of collegial loyalty and devotion.