USD Magazine, Winter 2001

but credits the archbishop as his inspiration to become a full-time teacher after retiring from a career in government work. "He was respectful of the students and graded himself based on the grades his students received. If a student performed poorly, Father Q uinn held himself accountable." Quinn also helped set the university on a path toward the eventual merger. As provost of the College for Men, he worked closely

one to indulge himself by talki ng about his accomplishments. A soft-spoken and thor– oughly tho ughtful man, his approach to his new teaching responsibility is typically understated. "My hope is to give the students some clarity so they can approach theology in a methodical manner," he says. "I can't deal with all the issues of the Church, but I can help them to consider the issues in a judi– cious way. " Q uinn plans to continue his own consid– eration of the issues he has raised, and look more carefully at the history of papal author– ity and the centralization of the Church. After a lifetime of preaching and leading withi n the Church, he's finding his new role quite refreshing. "I had hoped to someday make a scholarly contribution to theology, but my path took a different direction," says Quinn, who charac– teristically refuses to place his book among what he calls 'real theological work.' "But my life as a bishop allowed me to explore and help explain issues of faith in a public fo rum, and that has been a privilege." + giving more control to local bishops. His suggestions include allowing local churches to select their own bishops, discouraging the notion that the pope can intervene at will in the affairs of any diocese, and making the College of Cardinals - the exclusive group of 120 bishops who elect the pope - more inclusive of Eastern Orthodox bishops, o r patriarchs. In his book, Quinn walks a fine line between Roman Catholics who believe in the primacy of the pope and others who think the pope should act only as the bishop of Rome, an equal to other bishops. Some Church officials disagree with his assessments, suggesting that change is needed not in the papacy, but in the doctrines of the church. Although little practical change has taken place in the exercise of papal authority since the 1995 encyclical, the letter has sparked responses from members of the Church around the world, and it's likely the discussion of papal reform is just beginning.

a religion course, and the department focused mainly on Catholicism. By the time he left, classes in religion were part of the general education requirement, he had hired the area's first woman professor and he broadened the curriculum by adding a Lutheran and a Jewish rabbi to the faculty. In the tradition of inclusion begun by his colleague, Quinn will be part of an ecumeni– cal dialogue this spring, sitting down fo r a

AMONG THE HIGHLIGHTS OF QUINN'S CAREER WAS THE OPPORTUNITY TO ACCOM– PANY POPE JOHN PAUL II ON A TRIP THROUGH IRELAND AND THE UNITED STATES IN 1979, INCLUDING VISITING PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER AT THE WHITE HOUSE.

Feb. 26 panel discussion with bishops from three other Christian traditions: Anglican, Lutheran and Orthodox. "More and more, the doors are opening to these kinds of discussions," says Quinn, "and if I am to fo llow through on what I've started, then I have to walk through them." In fact, Quinn is helping to open those doors, but as Portman and other friends point out, the archbishop has never been Rpe John Paul II asked. Archbishop John Quinn answered. If only it were as simple as that. In 1995, the pope issued an encycli– cal, or letter, called Ut Unum Sint, loosely translated as "That They May Be One." In the letter, he asked Christians to consider how the pope's office might be reformed to better ful– fill Christ's command that all Christians be as one. A major obstacle to such unity, the pope acknowledged, is the papacy itself.While other Christian churches are more, for lack of a better word, democratic, the Roman Catholic church concentrates nearly absolute authority in the pope, a practice not readily reconcilable wit h Protestant or Orthodox Christian traditions. Quinn saw the encyclical as an invi– tation for input, a111d in 1999 published a response to the pope's letter. In The Reform of the Papacy: The Costly Call to Christian Unity, Quinn suggests the Vatican needs to decentralize authority,

with Sister Nancy Morris, president of the women's college, to resolve many of the issues related to combining the two colleges. H e was never far from Portman, who worked with Quinn at the seminary, then went on to chair the USD religious studies department from 1967 to 1974, seeing it through the merger of the two colleges. When Portman became department chair, only Roman Catholics were required to take

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