"Pa. Prelate Named Baltimore Archbishop." The Washington Post, 12 April 1989.

Pa. Prelate Named Baltimore Archbishop

By Marjorie Hyer
Washington Post Staff Writer

April 12, 1989

Roman Catholic Bishop William H. Keeler of Harrisburg, Pa., a leader in Catholic-Protestant and Catholic-Jewish relations, was named yesterday by Pope John Paul II as archbishop of Baltimore, the oldest jurisdiction of the church in this country.

Keeler, 58, succeeds Baltimore Archbishop William D. Borders, who submitted his resignation in October at the mandatory retirement age of 75.

A bishop since 1979, Keeler is generally viewed as a moderate to progressive who follows the same pastoral, people-centered approach to church affairs as Borders.

In 1987, when Keeler was chairman of the Bishops' Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, he helped ease painful tensions between his church and the American Jewish community. Jews, outraged by the pope's granting of a private audience to Austrian President Kurt Waldheim, who had been accused of having Nazi ties, had threatened to boycott a long-scheduled meeting with the pontiff in Miami at the outset of his visit to this country.

Keeler helped arrange conversations between world Jewish leaders and top Vatican officials, including the pope. Officials on both sides said the talks were critical to furthering understanding of the centuries-old Jewish complaints of anti-Semitism in the Catholic Church.

In November, Keeler was elected secretary of the National Catholic Bishops Conference in a race with a popular prelate who outranked him, Archbishop Patrick Flores of San Antonio. As an officer of the conference, Keeler was the only non-archbishop to take part in the extraordinary summit conference of U.S. archbishops with the pope and top Vatican officials last month in Rome.

In his new post, Keeler will head the original jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in this country. One of his early tasks will be to preside over the bicentennial celebrations this fall of the beginnings of American Catholicism.

The Baltimore archdiocese, which stretches from Western Maryland to the Chesapeake Bay, and encompasses Anne Arundel and Howard counties, includes about 438,000 Catholics in 160 parishes. Despite recent financial problems that necessitated a 10 percent cut in administrative staff earlier this year, the archdiocese, under Borders' leadership, is viewed in church circles as one of the best administered and lively in the country.

Selection of bishops is a highly secretive process made by the Vatican's Congregation of Bishops and confirmed by the pope on the basis of recommendations made by Archbishop Pio Laghi, the pope's personal representative in this country. Archbishops usually are chosen from the ranks of bishops.

Among the prerequisites for archbishop, particularly under the present pope, are faithfulness to church teachings, including such matters as opposition to birth control and women as priests, and support of priestly celibacy.

Keeler, born in San Antonio, was educated through the seminary in Pennsylvania. He was ordained in 1955 after studies at North American College in Rome.

He received graduate degrees in theology and canon law at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, which is generally viewed as putting a young priest on the career track to bishop.

After service as a parish priest in Harrisburg and seven years of work on the diocesan tribunal that determines marriage annulments, he was named chancellor of the Harrisburg diocese in 1969, auxiliary bishop in 1979 and diocesan bishop in 1983.