Gerald Emmett Cardinal Carter 1912-2003.

Catholic Insight Staff

On the west wall of the main corridor of St. Augustine's Seminary in Toronto are paintings of the last five Toronto Archbishops. They are of various sizes, but the largest, not the best, is that of his Eminence Cardinal Carter. It is a kind of symbol of his dominance in the hierarchy in English-speaking Canada.

The death of Cardinal Carter on April 6, 2003 marks the end of a remarkable ecclesiastical career spanning most of the twentieth century and reaching into this present age. He was born in Montreal on March 11,1912, the youngest child of Thomas Carter and Mary Agnes Kerr. Of the eight children of this union, the seventh child, Alexander was to become Bishop of Sault Ste. Marie.

Gerald Emmett served as an altar and choir-boy in St. Patrick's Church. He entered the Grand Seminary in Montreal and was ordained to the priesthood in May 1937. After brief pastoral work he was appointed ecclesiastical inspector of Montreal's English-language schools. His career in Catholic education was distinguished. He founded, and served as president of St. Joseph Teachers' College and was co-founder and director of the St. Thomas More Institute for Adult Education. He represented the Archdiocese of Montreal on the Catholic School Commission of Quebec. Among other honours he was named a Canon of the Basilica of Our Lady of the World in January 1953.

In December 1961, Canon Carter was named Auxiliary Bishop of London, Ontario, and consecrated in Montreal by Cardinal Leger. On the death of Bishop Cody of London, he was appointed to succeed him in February 1964. In April 1978, he was named Archbishop of Toronto, succeeding Archbishop Philip Pocock. Pope John Paul II, in his first consistory, June 1979, raised him to the College of Cardinals. He suffered a severe stroke on May 1981, which left his left side weakened but did not affect his mental capacity. He resigned as Archbishop of Toronto in March 1990 at the age of 78.

There are other statistics of note and interest. He had the highest marks in the history of the Grand Seminary; his marks were probably never equalled. He attended all sessions of Vatican Council II, 1962-1965. He took part in three Ordinary Synods of Bishops and was a member of the general secretariat. He was also a member of the Council of Cardinals for the study of Organizational and economic problems of the Holy See. There were numerous other appointments. In Canada he served terms as Vice-President and President of the Canadian Conference of Bishops

As author, Cardinal Carter wrote The Catholic Public Schools of Quebec (Toronto: W.J. Gage, 1957); the controversial Psychology and the Cross (Bruce Publishing, Milwaukee), 1959, The Modern Challenge of Religious Education; and countless articles and some poems. A collection of some of his occasional writings, sermons and papers was published by the Catholic Register shortly after his stroke, under the title A Shepherd Speaks.

There have been many tributes to Cardinal Carter's academic excellence and service to the Church. Besides his Ph.D. in Education from the University of Montreal (1947) he was the recipient of twelve honorary doctorates in Ontario. He was inducted into the Order of Canada in 1983. To honour him there are the Cardinal Carter Secondary School at Leamington; the Cardinal Carter Library, King's College, London; the Cardinal Carter Academy of the Arts, Toronto; the Cardinal Carter High School, Aurora; the Cardinal Carter Wing of St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto; the Cardinal Carter Physical Sciences Complex at St. Francis Xavier University, and the Cardinal Carter Scholarship Bursary at St. John's University, Nfld.

Personality

Cardinal Carter possessed a remarkable combination of physical, mental and personality attributes. Endowed with superior intellectual powers and a quick wit, he found few to challenge him in debate. His friend ex-Premier William Davis said of him: "He has one of the finest minds I have ever been exposed to." Despite this, Cardinal Carter was not always consistent in his views. His secretary in London once said that he, the secretary, reviewed his talks carefully, because the bishop sometimes contradicted one week what he had said the week before.

In temperament Cardinal Carter could be both gracious and severe when he thought that was in order. Sociable and athletic, he played excellent tennis and golf for most of his life. He loved fishing, swimming, and the out-of-doors. He repaired frequently for recreation to his cottage on Lake Simcoe. Far from superstitious, he said he had a favourite number: 8. He was the eighth child of his parents. He was the eighth Bishop of London and the eighth Archbishop of Toronto. When he was named Archbishop of Toronto, he had eight years to go to the retirement age of seventy-five.

Throughout his life Cardinal Carter cultivated the friendship of those in power and in high places. His first mentor was Cardinal Leger. Through gifts and other gestures of liberality he became a close friend of Cardinal Baggio when the latter was Apostolic Delegate to Canada. Later Cardinal Baggio became perhaps the most powerful prelate in the Roman Curia as Secretary of the Sacred Congregation for Bishops. Another close friend was Cardinal Wright, Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy. Others were the liberal Cardinal Dearden of Detroit, Archbishop Pocock of Toronto, and Archbishop Plourde of Ottawa.

Fiercely independent, Cardinal Carter had a high notion of the authority of the Bishop. Just before the election of Pope John Paul II, Bishop Carter said: "There is no reason for the Pope to be interfering in the affairs of each Diocese. All he is going to do is mess it up." (Toronto Star, August 28, 1978). When he was eighty, he said: "There is the Church's right-wing, writing to Rome and complaining about their bishop when they disagree with him...Such action is not only totally unacceptable, it's anti-Catholic. And, as far as I am concerned, Rome has not paid too much attention to them." On the other hand, he spoke more than once on the right hierarchical structure in the Church. Speaking to the Knights of Malta in October of 1973, he reminded them that authority in the Church does not rest with theologians, or clergy or laity or the media but with the successors of the Apostles. He said: "Keep your eyes on the bishops of the Church, and, if there is any doubt, then look to Peter for guidance."

It is not possible here to comment on all facets of Cardinal Carter's career. He took significant stands on social issues, on the priesthood, on the liturgy, on the role of women in the Church, and on other matters. What is most important is his major influence in two areas: life issues and Catholic education.

Life Issues

Humanae vitae

Long before the encyclical Humanae vitae was issued on July 25, 1968, Bishop Carter was convinced that the Church would change her teaching on contraception. In this he was probably influenced by Cardinal Leger, Cardinal Suenens, and theologians like Hans Kung, Bernard Haring and Gregory Baum.

On February 7, 1967, he issued Confessional Directives for the priests of London, his Diocese. He wrote: "Because of the doubt in the practical order, no priest can refuse absolution to persons using the pill, unless their motive is clearly sinful. If doctors can be confused about the scientific aspects of the pill, then priests should be confused about the morality of the use of the pill." Meanwhile, Pope Paul VI had already reaffirmed the traditional teaching of the Church against contraception in 1964 and 1966, calling it a time of study and not of doubt.

Not too surprisingly then, Bishop Carter considered Humanae vitae a "tragedy", to use his own word. His reaction on first reading the encyclical was: "We felt that this was going to be a major problem."

In September of 1968 the Canadian bishops met at Winnipeg, primarily to formulate a response to Humanae vitae. The bishops of the world had been asked by the Holy Father, through the Secretary of State, to stand firm on the doctrine of the encyclical and to "explain and justify the reason for it." Bishop Carter did not accept this mandate. He wrote in a private letter: "The Holy Father had not asked for our opinion and it would have been impertinent of us to express our support since we had not been consulted." Later, he said: "The tragedy of Humanae vitae was not that the Pope spoke alone, but that, apparently, he thought he had to". Actually, some time previous to the encyclical, resident bishops had been asked their opinion in a confidential questionnaire. The Pope had reserved the decision to himself on the new problems related to contraception, with the overwhelming support of the bishops at Vatican II.

It was a spirit of dissent and rebellion which gave Canada the Winnipeg Statement of September 27, 1968. Bishop Carter stayed up most of the nights of September 25 and September 26, 1968, helping to formulate the more difficult paragraphs. So we have the pastoral disaster of paragraph 26. Referring to contraception, it said that there were circumstances in which the couple "may be safely assured that, whoever honestly chooses that course which seems right to him does so in good conscience". Later, he would forbid his London priests to speak on Humanae vitae.

Married in the Lord

Additional evidence of Bishop Carter's opposition to Humanae vitae was his "Imprimatur" on a marriage preparation course called Married in the Lord. It was used extensively in the London diocese and other parts of Ontario and beyond. It endorsed the Winnipeg Statement. It allowed contracepting couples to receive Holy Communion. The confessional advice to be given couples who intended to marry and were having pre-marital sex was that they were to be encouraged to observe "periods of abstinence". It affirmed that the teaching against contraception of Pope Paul VI--who reiterated several times that his was not his teaching but the teaching of the Church--"could be revised if fresh data or new insights warranted such a move".

The Synod on the Family

At the Synod of Bishops on the Family in Rome in 1980 we get a glimpse of Cardinal Carter's lingering opposition to the encyclical Humanae vitae. He criticized the organizers of the Synod for not inviting theologians "who do not accept the restriction on birth-control". He asked whether the widespread practice of contraception among Catholics was not the Holy Spirit saying something to the Church.

Upon his return from the Synod he gave a press conference, reported in the Toronto Globe and Mail for November 6, 1980. The heading was: "Toronto Cardinal says Pope needs new speech writer". It was a reference to the Pope's speech at the end of the Synod in which he reaffirmed the teaching of the Church against contraception. We are told in the press report that the Cardinal not only criticized the Holy Father for his remarks on contraception but also for taking a hard line on divorced and remarried Catholics.

From all his public statements, it would seem that Cardinal Carter never wavered in his support of the Winnipeg Statement, or doubted its pastoral advice. Yet there is evidence that he had his misgivings. In a private letter dated June 15, 1995, he wrote: "I am not prepared to defend paragraph 26 of the Winnipeg Statement totally. I think we might have found a more lucid way of expressing our ideas. In a sense, the phraseology was misleading and could give the impression that the bishops were saying that one was free to dissent at will from the Pope's teaching."

On abortion, Bishop Carter stood firm. He was the first and only bishop at the beginning of the nineteen seventies to publicly defend the total unacceptability of abortion on TV, speaking from the students' bearpit at the University of Western Ontario in London. Yet here, too, his record was to be erratic because of his tendency to go it alone.

When the Trudeau government held hearings on a new Charter of Rights and Freedoms in early 1981, pro-life activists from across the country were bringing tremendous pressure to bear on MPs to accept a clause for the protection of the unborn, with the support of religious leaders across the country including practically the entire hierarchy of Catholic bishops in English Canada. To the amazement and horror of many Catholics, the Cardinal announced in late March that he was dropping his opposition to the bill which would enshrine the Charter in Canadian law. Prime Minister Trudeau had assured him in a private session that nothing in the bill would affect the status of abortion as it was then. The Cardinal's announcement destroyed the pro-life interparty caucus and ended the effort for a protection of the unborn clause under Section 7.

Shortly thereafter the Cardinal had a stroke, recovered, consulted with pro-life leaders and made a last attempt to undo the damage, but alas it was too late. Seven years later, in January 1988, the Supreme Court ruled that the existing legislation contradicted the Charter and threw it out.

Following this episode and his stroke, Cardinal Carter changed course and from then on defended magisterial teaching on the liturgy, women's ordination, collegiality, and other theological controversies. He developed a tremendous respect for Pope John Paul II.

Catholic education

In Montreal, Canon Carter did much for Catholic education through writing, speaking, organization and leadership. This must not be forgotten. While in London he often expressed doubts about the Come to the Father catechetical program, often called the Canadian Catechism. He saw the lack of memorization and doctrinal omissions as serious deficiencies ( see "Facts and Fancy in Catechism", Catholic Register, October 15, 1977). In London he set up the Divine Word catechetical centre. This was ultimately a failure.

While Archbishop of Toronto, Cardinal Carter was instrumental in obtaining increased funding for Catholic High Schools. This was a mixed blessing. It could be argued that the benefits that accompanied the increased financial aid were far outweighed by negative results. On February 16, 1985, Cardinal Carter addressed an assembly of Catholic High School officials and teachers at St. Michael's College. The meeting was to celebrate the extension of public funding to Grades eleven and twelve, announced by Premier William Davis on June 11, 1984. He said:

"I do not see the inclusion of a certain number of non-Catholic teachers on our staff as being a fatal blow to our convictions or to our ability to transmit to the next generation and future generations the tenets of our faith and the principles of our morality--I say that we should welcome with open arms our brother teachers who may come into our system even if they do not share our faith". The Church has always taught that teachers who are living their faith are even more important than that other key essential-a good catechetical text. Cardinal Carter granted a further concession: " The same (welcome) applies under certain conditions to non-Catholic children who may properly seek education in our schools."

We have considered only a few aspects of Cardinal Carter's influence on the Catholic Church in Canada in the twentieth century. Perhaps no Canadian Catholic bishop was better placed and better endowed with the natural talents needed to advance Catholicism in Canada. Probably every Catholic in Canada has been affected by his life. History will judge his influence, both positive and negative.

Farewell

Surely we should remember in our prayers this outstanding Canadian Cardinal and Archbishop. We may do so as the Church does in her oration for a deceased bishop:

"God our Father, may your servant Gerald Emmett Carter, who was our bishop, rejoice in the fellowship of the successors of the Apostles whose office he shared in this life. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen."