Bishops, retirement

I was saddened to read on the NCR Web site that Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, upon his retirement, has been directed to leave his parish and his home. It is hard to accept that a 75-year-old man who served the people of Detroit as a priest for more than 50 years should now be taken from the community that provides the love and support he needs in this last part of his life.

On the positive side, however, it's good to know that not all Catholic bishops are treated in such a manner. Cardinal Adam Maida, present archbishop of Detroit, has a retirement palazzo in the unused St. John's Seminary in Plymouth, Mich., and Cardinal Edmund Szoka, previous Detroit archbishop, has a similar palace in the underused Sacred Heart Seminary. Both palaces were built with donations from the good, faithful and wealthy Catholics of Detroit. Detroit Catholics now have the happiness of knowing that seminaries, built in the first part of the 20th century to house legions of men studying for the priesthood, have now been transformed into palaces. And Bishop Gumbleton, now without a supportive community, can reflect on his failure to follow the scripture passage, "I say to you: Make unto you friends of the mammon of iniquity, that when you shall fail, they may receive you into everlasting dwellings" (Luke 16:9). Perhaps this good and most holy bishop will find a better home in the Kingdom that is to come.

GERALD MALONEY

Southfield, Mich.

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