In the early 1990s, island author John McCoy recorded more than 20 extensive interviews for a biography about the recently retired Archbishop of Seattle, Raymond Hunthausen. But the former Post-Intelligencer religion reporter and city editor shelved the project after the election of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. Their orthodox and authoritarian papacies discouraged McCoy, who found his interest reignited with the election of Pope Francis. Dusting off his research, McCoy set to work writing Hunthausen’s story.
The author will sign and read from his new book, “A Still and Quiet Conscience: The Archbishop Who Challenged a Pope, a President, and a Church,” this week at the Vashon Bookshop.
“I had set the book aside, thinking who would care?” McCoy said. “But when Francis was elected, I saw a lot of similarities — issues of immigration, being inclusive and responsive, the environment. There are a lot of parallels between the two and how the church ought to be. So the book has relevance. I also wanted to rescue Hunthausen from his successors, who wanted to bury him in history.”
McCoy, who worked as the communications director at the Archdiocese of Seattle during the difficult final years of Hunthausen’s tenure, believes the archbishop was one of the pivotal church leaders of the 20th century. The author is also a committed Catholic and bases his opinion on the fact that Hunthausen applied the gospels to the issues of the day.
“He believed the key issue was the possibility of nuclear genocide, the doomsday clock,” McCoy said. “There was a huge build-up during the Reagan administration, and what made it pertinent to Hunthausen were the Trident subs in Bangor.”
Knowing that one submarine packed 100 times the nuclear destruction of the bombs dropped on Nagasaki during World War II, Hunthausen grappled with what to do with the subs stationed virtually in his backyard, McCoy said. He questioned what his responsibilities were, choosing to both talk with a number of people and to search the gospels.
“Jesus turned the other cheek,” McCoy said. “(Hunt-hausen) said he would not be a pacifist but would be a nuclear pacifist as the horror of nuclear war risked the destruction of the planet. (Hunthausen) would argue that Christians could not entertain going to nuclear war.”
That is one example of many McCoy recounts about the 94-year-old Hunthausen, who is the only living bishop to have attended the last two Vatican counsels. McCoy said the book also tells the story of the American Catholic Church over the last 50 years, ending with the election of Pope Francis.
While Francis and Hunthausen seem to share similar outlooks, McCoy said Francis is an extrovert, and Huntausen is an introvert, adding that Hunthausen is also just “a fascinating human being.”
John McCoy will sign and read from his new book at 6 p.m. Thursday at Vashon Bookshop.
