Bishop Sartain leaving Joliet Diocese for Seattle
After about four years as the head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Joliet, Bishop J. Peter Sartain announced Thursday he's leaving to become the Archbishop of Seattle.
"I am honored and humbled by the appointment, and I give myself to God and to the good people of Western Washington with all my heart," he said in a transcript provided of an address he gave in Seattle.
Sartain's new post will have him leading nearly a million Catholics across 29,000 square miles of Western Washington. His time in Joliet will end within the next six weeks and Pope Benedict XVI will choose Sartain's successor.
Until then, Diocese officials said an administrator will be appointed to run day-to-day operations at one of the largest Diocese in the country. Doug Delaney, Diocese spokesman, said the administrator will likely be auxiliary Bishop Joseph Siegel.
He would lead more than 650,000 parishioners in more than seven counties, including DuPage and Will.
"He is a local man and knows the structure of the church here," Delaney said.
Some area church leaders said the news of Sartain's took them off guard.
"He's been here a relatively short time, compared to his predecessor (Bishop Joseph Imesch) who had been here for 25 years, so we feel like we were just starting to know him," said The Rev. Dennis Paul of St. Isidore in Bloomingdale, one of the largest churches in the Diocese. "Change kind of comes with the position and we expect this, but we're surprised it happened so soon. Still, we wish him well in his new assignment."
Yet during his four years in the Diocese, Sartain stirred major changes. The biggest is a plan to deal with declining Catholic school enrollment. The process, which affects 40 schools and parishes, will unfold over about a decade and involves closing four schools, merging others, and opening new schools in areas experiencing an increase in Catholic residents.
The plan also calls for trying to stabilize some schools with sagging enrollment and trying to help with fundraising initiatives.
Sartain also launched "Christ, Our Hope" magazine, which reaches about 187,000 families every month. Delaney said the publication aims to reinvigorate Catholics' faith.
"It invites people to come back to the church and back to the sacraments," Delaney said. "It was a huge undertaking."
When Sartain came to the Joliet Diocese from Little Rock, Ark., - where he served as bishop from 2000 to 2006 - local Catholics expressed hope that a young Bishop in his early 50s would better handle local cases of sex abuse within the church.
Several priests were removed from their posts under his watch, including a clergyman in Glendale Heights accused of sexual abuse, and another in Roselle accused of stealing church funds.
But some abuse advocates, such as leaders of The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, say Sartain failed to respond adequately to abuse allegations.
David Clohessy of St. Louis, SNAP director, points to examples that include the case of the Rev. Alejandro Flores, who pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a young St. Charles boy and was sentenced this month to four years in prison. Clohessy said Sartain ordained the priest shortly after he was found with pornography that was legal, but depicted boyish-looking actors.
"He did not disclose the porn, did not delay the ordination and is it unclear if he sent Flores for treatment," said Clohessy. "The result was repeated child sex crimes."
But Delaney maintains that Sartain not only always immediately contacted authorities, the priest and the family of the alleged victim after an accusation, but he also felt it was important to face parishioners.
"Bishop has removed several priests and always went to those parishes and explained the situation, how it was being handled and what would happen in the future," said Delaney. "That takes a lot of courage."
Before his time in Arkansas, Sartain was the Vicar general in his hometown at the Memphis Diocese in Tennessee from 1993 to 2000. He was ordained a priest in 1978.