Raymond Hunthausen, liberal Seattle archbishop censured by Rome, dies at 96

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

Raymond Hunthausen, liberal Seattle archbishop censured by Rome, dies at 96

By Gene Johnson
July 25 at 3:10 PM

Raymond G. Hunthausen, a retired Seattle archbishop whose outspoken support for nuclear disarmament, gay rights and an expanded role for women in the church made him one of the most controversial U.S. bishops, died July 22 at his home in Helena, Mont. He was 96.

The Seattle Archdiocese announced the death but did not provide a cause.

Archbishop Hunthausen, who was born in Montana, served as the bishop of Helena from 1962 to 1975 and as archbishop of Seattle from 1975 to 1991. He was the last living American bishop to have participated in all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council, called by the pope in the early 1960s to modernize the church, the archdiocese said.

Archbishop Hunthausen led protests near a base for nuclear-armed Trident submarines at Bangor, Wash. He withheld half his federal income tax in the early 1980s in protest of nuclear weapon stockpiling, and he urged others to do the same. The IRS garnished his wages.

Conservative critics accused him of deviating from Catholic doctrine by allowing a group for gay Catholics to celebrate Mass at Seattle’s Saint James Cathedral, by allowing divorced or remarried Catholics to receive the sacraments, and by permitting Catholic hospitals to perform contraceptive sterilizations.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/raymond-hunthausen-liberal-seattle-archbishop-censured-by-rome-dies-at-96/2018/07/25/1a3d7400-903c-11e8-8322-b5482bf5e0f5_story.html

[mrs_p]

1. RIP

He was my archbishop (and one of my heroes) growing up.

Edit. Spellcheck error

[KT2000]

2. with deep respect

for Archbishop Hunthausen.