Auxiliary bishop for archdiocese

The Rev. George Thomas can remember one time he balked at an assignment. The archbishop had called Thomas, a parish priest, to say he was being promoted to administrator at the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle.

"I would rather be a parish priest," Thomas remembers saying bluntly. "And he said, `So would I.'

"So I couldn't say no."

But Thomas, 49, didn't balk in November when Archbishop Alex Brunett called to say the pope had approved another promotion for him. Tomorrow, Thomas will be ordained auxiliary bishop for the archdiocese, to share with Brunett the confirmations, religious celebrations and administrative duties that have all but overwhelmed the archbishop since he came to Seattle two years ago.

Thomas has been vicar general and chancellor in the Seattle archdiocese for the past 12 years, a job that's part pastor to priests and part regional manager.

Thomas' appointment is generally being cheered in the archdiocese's 168 parishes and missions. He has spent his career in the archdiocese and is the first Seattle priest to be named bishop in 30 years.

Observers point out that the archbishop's workload has become near-overload during the past 20 years as the number of Catholics has doubled.

Thomas' reception is in sharp contrast to 1985, the last time Rome sent Seattle an auxiliary bishop.

That time, the new bishop, the Rev. Donald Wuerl, was seen by many as an interloper, a Vatican spy sent to enforce orthodoxy in the chancery of Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen.

Thomas' friends say his appointment is a sign that the rift between local Catholics and Rome dating from Wuerl's tenure is "healed."

Thomas, a friend and protege of Hunthausen's, says only that "the appointment is something of a mystery to me" and that the archdiocese has had "painful" periods.

Thomas is clearly happy to be working "in the field" again.

"As vicar general, I've often felt out of touch," he says. "I'd go out to the parishes and often, I think, people would be saying, `What's he doing here? Is he here to fire somebody? What?'

"I felt like a visitor."

Needed help

Most Catholics concede that Brunett needs help. The archdiocese sprawls over nearly 25,000 square miles of Western Washington, from the Canadian border to the Oregon line, from the Cascades to the Pacific.

It serves 515,000 active Catholics and another 200,000 who rarely pass through the church door.

Thomas was born in Butte, Mont., and received a degree in literature and philosophy from Carroll College, a Catholic school in Helena.

He wanted to be a priest from the time he was 5, he says.

Nearly every day, the neighborhood children would visit a kindly priest who lived in the church rectory.

He had a tin that always seemed to be full of cookies, and they'd all munch and talk.

"I don't remember what he said," Thomas says. "I just remember his laugh, his kindness, his black cassock and his housekeeper's cookies.

"And wanting to be a priest, too. He was very Christ-like."

It was Hunthausen who suggested that Thomas enter St. Thomas Seminary in Bothell. Following his ordination for the priesthood in 1976, he served parishes in Kirkland, Bellevue, Seattle and Duvall and was a chaplain in the King County Jail.

"I became aware that all these people were struggling with mental-health issues and addictions, and I felt underqualified," he says, so he went to the University of Washington for a master's degree in counseling and mental health in 1983.

Thomas will be Seattle's fourth auxiliary bishop.

Brunett, an international leader in the Pope's ecumenical efforts, began asking the Vatican for help two years ago, when he came to Seattle to succeed the late Archbishop Thomas Murphy.

Murphy's predecessor, Hunthausen, requested help with his workload, and the Vatican sent Wuerl, the last auxiliary bishop here.

About the same time, the Vatican admonished Hunthausen for his social activism and for a time gave Wuerl many of the archbishop's duties.

When Wuerl left in 1987 to become bishop of Pittsburgh he said he'd been the object of anger and harassment in Seattle.

Hunthausen's full authority was restored, and he retired in 1991.

Thomas' appointment is "a symbol of healing and the unity we now have with Rome," says the Rev. Joe Tyson, pastor of three parishes in Southeast Seattle and a friend of Thomas'.

Thomas says he has learned from all three archbishops he has served - Hunthausen, Murphy and Brunett.

"Archbishop Hunthausen taught me to think in terms of justice and peace and how to use the gifts of men and women in furthering the church," he says.

Murphy, who died in 1997 after suffering from leukemia, "taught me to let go and be more attentive to the work of the spirit."

Brunett has helped him reconnect with parish life.

"I know I'm seen as quite reserved," he says. "People always seem surprised by my sense of humor. I love a good joke."

Not all his friends would question that.

The Rev. Michael McDermott of Our Lady Queen of Heaven parish in Tacoma still laughs when he remembers the time a housekeeper asked Thomas how he'd like his salmon that evening.

"Hoed into the garden," he said. ------------------------- Thomas ordained

The Rev. George Thomas will be ordained auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Seattle at 3 p.m. tomorrow at St. James Cathedral, 804 Ninth Ave.