Bishop Joseph Sullivan, R.I.P.

I doubt that five people in Pennsylvania know who Bishop Joseph Sullivan was.  But he truly was a giant in the world of social service and social advocacy for the Catholic Church in the United States.

Bishop Sullivan, 83, died on June 10 in his native Brooklyn, New York, where he was a priest and bishop for 57 years.  He was appointed to serve in Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Brooklyn three years after his ordination to the priesthood in 1956.  Within ten years he had earned two degrees (M.B.A. and M.S.W.) and served as the agency's executive director for another twelve years.  He expanded the services of his diocesan Catholic Charities until it had over 160 departments.   In 1980, he was ordained a bishop, along with fellow Brooklyn priests Rene Valero and Anthony Bevilacqua (later Bishop of Pittsburgh and Cardinal Archbishop of Philadelphia).  

As a bishop he was the episcopal liaison for Catholic Charities USA for the next two decades.  The list of boards, committees, hospital corporations, and task forces he served on are too numerous to mention.

Mostly forgotten in the dustbin of American Catholic history today is that then Father Joe Sullivan chaired the committee "Toward a Renewed Catholic Charities Movement" in 1970-71.  This report, known within the Catholic Charities movement as "the Cadre Study," revolutionized how Catholic Charities would serve the poor in our country for two generations right down to today.  It was this study which developed the three-prong focus of:  offer direct quality social service to persons most in need;  work to humanize and transform society; and convene Catholics, other Christians and all people of good will to understand their role in serving human dignity.  Catholic Charities had always served the poor, beginning in our country  in 1727 with the Ursuline Sisters in New Orleans.  The cadre study called for professional excellence in this service.

But it went far beyond, calling the church to engage and transform society, and to work with all people of good will in that effort.  Bishop Sullivan carried that effort locally, nationally and internationally.  As current Brooklyn ordinary, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio (a social worker himself), said, "Bishop Joe Sullivan epitomized the best of our Church's teaching and the fundamental option for the poor.  He was an outstanding priest."  

I met Joe when I served as diocesan secretary for social concerns and attended the national meetings of Catholic Charities.  He was a New Yorker to the core--from his accent, to his energy, his street smarts and ecclesial insights, to his ability to work a room and engage people, to his articulate advocacy to the social teachings of our church.   He was also a realist, and knew how to work within the systems to get the most out of them.  It was his honesty about what the church could do, and did not do, which probably prevented him from becoming a diocesan bishop.  But in true fashion, he did what he could and left others to worry about position or prestige.

After I stopped attending the Catholic Charities conventions, I lost touch with him.  I wonder how he viewed the past decade of our nation's Catholic history.  With its clerical abuse scandals, decline in public engagement (except on the issue of abortion), and national decline in care for the immigrants, homeless, and indigent.  I suspect that the fire which burned within Bishop Joe Sullivan to serve the poor would say, never back down from doing what Jesus called us to do, the parable of Matthew 25. 

May you rest in peace and be welcomed by all the needy and poor you helped on earth into the realms of heaven, Joseph Sullivan.