"Keeler will be hard to follow, many say." The Baltimore Sun, 13 July 2007.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-te.md.reax13jul13,0,3714887.story?coll=bal-home-headlines
From the Baltimore Sun

Keeler will be hard to follow, many say
'His example set a standard of excellence'

By Kelly Brewington
Sun reporter

July 13, 2007

To Latino parishioners, Cardinal William H. Keeler is a leader who embraced diversity and made the effort to learn their language.

To Jewish leaders, he is admired for his integrity, honesty and tireless efforts at building interfaith dialogue.

And to Baltimore's half a million Catholics, Keeler will be remembered for providing guidance, comfort and acceptance while leading such ambitious projects as restoring the Basilica of the Assumption and finding a new home for an expanded Our Daily Bread soup kitchen.

Across the Baltimore region yesterday, Keeler's followers and admirers welcomed his successor, Archbishop Edwin Frederick O'Brien, while taking a moment to reflect on the legacy of a leader who left his mark over two decades.

The Rev. Luis Cremis, who presides over East Baltimore's Our Lady of Pompei, confessed he was overwhelmed with sorrow at Keeler's departure and the prospect of going without the cardinal's "very gentle, very fatherly smile."

Cremis knew Keeler's retirement was imminent, but up until now, he said, it didn't seem real.

"The saddest moment has been today," he said after midday Mass at the basilica, in which Keeler, 76, delivered a homily and O'Brien, 68, presided over communion. "Seeing the archbishop here, I know now it's really the moment."

His largely Hispanic congregation respected Keeler's efforts to speak Spanish.

"He made a major effort to be close to the people, to be a father," Cremis said.

That sentiment was echoed yesterday from leaders of different faiths. The Rev. Chris Leighton, executive director of the Institute for Christian and Jewish Studies, said Keeler did "extraordinary things for Jewish relations, nationally and internationally."

Keeler was following the Vatican's lead on such interfaith efforts, but the cardinal was able to bring a policy to life locally, said Leighton.

"Advancing the Jewish-Christian encounter has been a hallmark of his own vocation, his own calling," he said.

That legacy is felt beyond Jewish communities, said Leighton, a Presbyterian minister.

"His example set a standard of excellence that placed important demands for Protestants to enter out of their own insularity and enter into interfaith conversations," he said. "Because he made that such an important characteristic of his own ministry, it certainly enabled me to say, 'Why are we Protestants not doing more'?"

Rabbi Mark Loeb of Beth El Congregation in Pikesville said Keeler has been "long trusted in the Jewish community as a friend."

Keeler connected with Jewish leaders, but he was also honest with them about his beliefs, Loeb said.

In one of their first meetings, Loeb recalls, Keeler was attending Sabbath dinner at the synagogue when the conversation touched on the suffering of Polish Jews during the Holocaust. Keeler told the Jewish leaders in attendance that many Polish Catholics also have emotional wounds from that period.

"That's something that many Jews didn't understand; it was a very honest statement," said Loeb.

The Rev. Richard T. Lawrence, pastor at St. Vincent de Paul in Baltimore, said that when Keeler was appointed in 1989, he worried that the new archbishop might embrace a "monolithic, my-way-or-the-highway brand of Catholicism," and attempt to change what has been a liberal congregation.

Not only did Keeler turn out to be a proponent of diversity among Catholics, he had a sense of humor, said Lawrence. During his first visit to St. Vincent de Paul, Keeler called Lawrence "one of the characters of the archdiocese," he said.

"Of course I didn't mind being called a character," Lawrence said. "He wanted to make the congregation feel comfortable with him. The fact that he is concerned about that, went a long way."

Even when they did not agree, the discourse was always respectful, Lawrence said.

Political leaders commended Keeler's ministry to the poor, his work in Baltimore neighborhoods and his effort to expand the city's largest soup kitchen.

"It's with some sadness that we wish Cardinal Keeler well in his retirement," said Gov. Martin O'Malley. "He has served the people of our state with grace for nearly two decades, and his good works, like Our Daily Bread and the restored Baltimore Basilica, will continue to make a difference in our community long after both of us are gone."

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon said that under Keeler pastors worked with neighborhoods "profiling where their churches are located and then looking at what the church can do or school in that area, to really partner with existing programs in the area, based on the profiling."

Keeler intends to stay in Baltimore and continue interfaith activities.

After Keeler offered the homily at yesterday's midday Mass, the congregation in the basilica burst into thunderous applause for him.

"He was a real leader on social justice issues and the idea of inclusionary housing," said Maureen Daly of Baltimore, after the Mass.

Joe Ignatius of Sykesville, who regularly attends Mass at the basilica, said he didn't know much about O'Brien - just that in Keeler, he has a hard act to follow.

Ignatius credits the cardinal with the pope's visit to Baltimore in 1995 and for the painstaking restoration of the basilica that opened to the public last fall. And, he added, he thinks Keeler impressively helped the church survive the damaging sexual abuse scandals.

"He did an excellent job getting us through that difficult period," Ignatius said. "He's just a very holy man and a very strong leader."

Michael J. Ruck Sr., a parishioner and chairman of the board of the Basilica Historic Trust Inc., lauded Keeler's commitment to refurbishing the basilica and his tremendous knowledge of Baltimore's premier role in Catholic history.

"We became very close," said Ruck, choking back tears. "We're really going to miss him."
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Keeler's life and times

March 4, 1931: Keeler is born in San Antonio.

1952: He graduates with a bachelor's degree from St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, Overbrook, Pa.

July 17, 1955: Then-Archbishop Luigi Traglia ordains him a priest at the Church of the Holy Apostles, Rome.

1956: Keeler graduates from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome with his licentiate in sacred theology.

1961: Keeler earns his doctorate in canon law at the Gregorian University.

1962-1965: He serves as special adviser during the Second Vatican Council.

1964: Keeler is named pastor of Our Lady of Good Counsel Church, Maryville, Pa.

1965: He is named diocese's vice chancellor.

1969: He is named diocese's chancellor, and ultimately was selected as vicar general.

1979: He is named auxiliary bishop.

Sept. 3, 1983: He is named administrator of the diocese after Bishop Joseph T. Daley dies.

Nov. 10, 1983: Keeler is named Bishop of Harrisburg.

1984 to 1987: He serves as chairman of the Bishops' Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs.

April 11, 1989: He is appointed archbishop of Baltimore, succeeding Archbishop William D. Borders.

Nov. 1992: He is elected president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and the United States Catholic Conference, now known as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Nov. 28, 1994: Pope John Paul II names Keeler a cardinal.

1995: Pope John Paul II visits Baltimore.

1998-2001: Keeler serves as chairman of the U.S. conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Pro-Life Activities (and also in November 2003-2006).

April 19, 2005: Pope Benedict XVI is elected. Keeler participates in the conclave that chose him.

Oct. 7. 2006: Keeler suffers a broken ankle when a car he is riding in is hit during a vacation in Terni, Italy. The Rev. Bernard Quinn, 78, a retired priest from Harrisburg, is killed and another priest is injured.

Nov. 4, 2006: Keeler presides at the reopening ceremony for the Basilica of the Assumption.

June 18, 2007: Cardinal undergoes surgery to remove excess fluid from his brain. Dr. Ben Carson, a pediatric neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital, inserts a shunt, or tube, into the cardinal's brain to allow excess cerebrospinal fluid to drain into his abdomen.

May 24, 2007: Keeler dedicates the Our Daily Bread Employment Center, a job training site and soup kitchen.

[Source: Archdiocese Of Baltimore, The Catholic Review