[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 29 (Wednesday, March 6, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E281-E283]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




THE DEATH OF HIS EMINENCE, JOHN CARDINAL KROL, D.D., J.D.C., ARCHBISHOP 
                   EMERITUS OF PHILADELPHIA, 1910-96

                                 ______


                            HON. JON D. FOX

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, March 6, 1996

  Mr. FOX of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to share my 
thoughts about a great spiritual leader who led the archdiocese of 
Philadelphia for nearly 30 years.

[[Page E282]]

  This week, the city of Philadelphia, the entire Delaware Valley 
region, the United States, and people throughout the world are mourning 
the death of one of the great spiritual leaders of our time, John 
Cardinal Krol, archbishop emeritus of the archdiocese of Philadelphia. 
He was 85. He came to Philadelphia an unknown bishop from Cleveland. He 
leaves with friends in the city, the Nation, and around the world.
  In my capacity of public service, I have had the great opportunity to 
know His Eminence. Through my contacts with members of his flock, I 
have come to appreciate the spirit, dedication, and integrity of a man 
who was unwavering in his faith in God, his commitment to his church 
and its people, and his dedication to the Greater Philadelphia area he 
served. He was a prince of the church who never lost touch with the 
common man and woman. He was a doctrinal conservative who had 
compassion for workers and the poor. He was, at once, a man who moved 
in powerful worldwide circles which dictated the course of Roman 
Catholicism and international politics and a shepherd whose humble 
service to God and His people made him a role model for those of all 
faiths. He served his people and his church with strong, steady, and 
effective leadership and with great distinction.
  The cardinal was born in Cleveland in 1910, the fourth of eight 
children of John and Anne Krol, Polish immigrants. One day, the 
cardinal liked to remember, a coworker asked him four questions about 
Catholicism that he couldn't answer. Annoyed, he began poking around in 
theology books. Instead of answers, he found more questions. That 
search for answers led him, at age 21, to the door of St. Mary's 
Seminary in Cleveland where he enrolled in 1931 as a candidate for the 
priesthood. There he developed a reputation for scholastic brilliance 
and was ordained a priest in 1937.
  His obvious intelligence and his devotion to God led him to Rome 
where he studied canon law. He arrived in a Europe restless under the 
shadow of Adolph Hitler. He visited Poland in 1939 to seek out the 
birthplace of his parents and managed to flee just before Nazi troops 
overran the country. Father Krol returned to this country and began 
further law studies at Catholic University here in Washington. He 
obtained his doctorate in canon law in 1942.
  A year later, he was named vice chancellor of the Cleveland diocese 
and, in 1951, he became chancellor. In 1953, he was named auxiliary 
bishop of Cleveland and, later that year, vicar general of the diocese.
  It was from this position he was named archbishop of Philadelphia in 
1961.
  As a public figure in Philadelphia, Cardinal Krol often moved among 
the wealthy and powerful in public life. Still, those who know him well 
described the cardinal as shy, compassionate, caring, and most at ease 
with children and the disabled.
  It was at the Second Vatican Council in1962 that Bishop Krol became 
friendly with Karol Jozef Wojtyla, the Polish priest who would later 
become Pope John Paul II. The future pope had been born in a town less 
than 50 miles from where Bishop Krol's parents hailed, and the two 
could lapse easily into a local Polish dialect that no one around them 
could understand.
  Bishop Krol had been the only American named the year before to serve 
on a commission preparing for the Vatican Council. His Holiness, Pope 
John XXIII, called the meeting of all the world's Catholic bishops in 
an effort to renew the church for life in modern times. It was to be 
only the 21st such council in the church's history and the first in a 
century.
  It was amid these preparations that Pope John named Bishop Krol to be 
archbishop of Philadelphia. He succeeded John Cardinal O'Hara, who had 
died the previous summer. Then the youngest Catholic archbishop in the 
United States, Krol approached his new job with trepidation. Still, he 
later recalled that he was given a warm welcome by the priest, 
religious, and the people of Philadelphia.
  A talented administrator, he kept the archdiocese financially secure 
at a time when even the Vatican was experiencing monetary problems. He 
ran the five-county archdiocese like a business and responsibly 
provided for the 1.5 million Catholics who live there. He maintained 
the Catholic school system, one of the best in the Nation, despite 
severe economic pressures and a decline in teaching nuns.
  At the same time he was administering the archdiocese with great 
skill, his stature rose in Rome. During the Vatican Council, Pope John 
made him one of the five under secretaries. In 1967, Pope Paul VI named 
Archbishop Krol a cardinal, a prince of the church.
  In 1971, the cardinal's fellow bishops elected him to a 3-year term 
as president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, 
solidifying his position as a premier prelate of the Catholic Church in 
America.
  It is widely believed that Cardinal Krol played a key role in the 
1978 conclave that elected Wojtyla, then the archbishop of Krakow, 
Poland, to the papacy. The two remained close friends and Cardinal Krol 
was one of the few people in the world who could get through to His 
Holiness on the telephone, giving him unique input to the 
decisionmaking process of the Roman Catholic Church.
  Poland was always an important cause in Cardinal Krol's life. He made 
radio broadcasts in Polish to his ancestral land for more than 25 years 
and headed relief efforts during the economic crises of the 1980's when 
his friend Lech Walesa and the Solidarity movement were challenging 
Communist rule.
  In this country, he offered advice and direction to several American 
Presidents including Richard Nixon who asked him to deliver sermons in 
the White House during his Presidency. He offered prayers at two 
Republican national conventions and traveled extensively to Israel, 
Egypt, India, Ireland, Jordan, Lebanon, and Poland. He called for 
Catholics and Protestants to lay down their arms in Northern Ireland 
and urged both sides to share the language of peace in the Middle East.
  In 1972, he concelebrated Mass with Pope John Paul II, then a 
cardinal, in a field at Auschwitz honoring the Polish priest and martyr 
St. Maximilian Kolbe, who volunteered to die in place of a Polish Army 
sergeant.
  When the Vatican was faced with staggering deficits in the early 
1980's, Cardinal Krol was appointed to a council of 15 cardinals and 
helped rescue the Holy See's finances. In 1985, Pope John Paul II 
appointed Cardinal Krol one of three copresidents over the 
Extraordinary Synod of Bishops, a special conference summoned by the 
Pope to evaluate the condition of the church 20 years after the close 
of Vatican II.
  Cardinal Krol submitted his resignation to the Pope on his 75th 
birthday as required by church law. But its acceptance was delayed out 
of a reluctance to see him step down. Finally, 2 years later, after the 
cardinal had become seriously ill, the Pope named Cardinal Anthony 
Bevilacqua, then bishop of Pittsburgh, to succeed him.
  On the occasion of his 75th birthday, the cardinal listed among the 
high points of his tenure in Philadelphia the canonization in 1977 of 
his 19th-century predecessor, St. John Neumann, the fourth bishop of 
Philadelphia; the meeting in Philadelphia in 1976 of the 41st 
International Eucharistic Congress, a major gathering of Catholics from 
around the world; Pope John Paul II's visit to Philadelphia in 1979 
during His Holiness' first trip to the United States; and the 
development of the new parishes and the construction of new churches.
  When many Catholics fled the city of Philadelphia for the suburbs, 
Cardinal Krol adopted a policy of keeping as many churches and schools 
open as possible in innercity neighborhoods despite the fact that the 
majority of the people served by the churches and schools there were 
not Catholic.
  Cardinal Krol also took satisfaction in the establishment in 1981 of 
Business Leaders Organized for Catholic Schools [BLOCS], an 
organization of local corporate executives, Catholic and non-Catholic, 
that raised millions of dollars for Catholic schools.
  Cardinal Krol stayed on the job longer after reaching retirement age 
than any other American bishop.
  The Cardinal, whose name in Polish means king, was uncomfortable with 
the trappings of his office. He disliked pomp and was happiest when he 
was with the children of his archdiocese or helping the poor.
  Over the years, honors have been showered on the prelate. A score of 
colleges and universities, including all the Philadelphia-area ones, 
conferred honorary degrees upon him. His biography lists 45 awards, 
including ones from Poland, Italy, and the Republic of Chad. He 
received the Philadelphia Freedom Medal, the city's most prestigious 
award, in 1978.
  The last award listed, and perhaps the most revered by Cardinal Krol, 
was the Commandery with the Star of the Order of Merit, presented by 
Polish President Lech Walesa in March 1991. Poland's highest award for 
people of other nations who are not heads of state, it had not been 
awarded in 52 years.
  The health of Cardinal Krol has not been good for years, Mr. Speaker, 
but he never lost his sense of humor. ``You get tired and you get into 
a rocking chair and you can't get it started,'' he quipped. But even 
when his health was not good, Cardinal Krol kept working on behalf of 
his church and its people. He traveled to Rome to celebrate the 
elevation of his successor, Anthony Bevilacqua, to the College of 
Cardinals in June 1991. And last October, he was at Giants Stadium to 
welcome his dear friend, the Pope, to America.
  Cardinal John Krol died on the Feast of Katherine Drexel, the 
Philadelphia heiress and nun who he sought to elevate to the status of 
saint.
  The woman, known as Mother Drexel, was beatified November 20, 1988, 
in a ceremony at the Vatican. Beatification is the second-highest honor 
the Catholic Church can confer, the next-to-last step in the long 
process toward granting sainthood to a member.

[[Page E283]]

  Cardinal Krol, then a retired archbishop, said at the time that the 
honor was a dream come true.
  The quest to honor Mother Drexel began in 1964 when Cardinal Krol 
approved a request by the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament that the 
church consider the possibility of declaring Mother Drexel a saint.
  An heiress who lived in poverty as a nun, Mother Drexel gave $20 
million to support the church's work among black people and native 
Americans. I think it is fitting that Cardinal Krol chose such a person 
to champion. Her spirit was reflected in his life. Her compassion for 
those in need was mirrored by his own. Her rejection of wealth and 
status in favor of a life of service was matched by his rejection of 
earthly trappings in favor of unfailing spirituality.
  Unfortunately, Cardinal Krol's friend, Pope John Paul II, will be 
unable to attend the funeral services in Philadelphia because of 
security restrictions but he was saddened by the news of his friend's 
death. His Holiness said, ``I have received news of the death of 
Cardinal John Krol, with a sense of great loss. With immense gratitude 
for his fruitful and untiring cooperation with the Holy See from the 
time of the Second Vatican Council and with me personally throughout my 
pontificate, I am certain that his memory will live on in the community 
he so faithfully served.''
  Mr. Speaker, the death of John Cardinal Krol was a loss to the 
archdiocese of Philadelphia and the entire Nation as well as to the 
Catholic Church, both here in the United States and throughout the 
world. Cardinal Krol was a quiet, graceful man in life and he was 
graceful in death. He chose to return home where he died, in his own 
bed, surrounded by friends, family, and colleagues. By extension, Mr. 
Speaker, all of us who ever knew him, who ever benefited by his 
leadership and faith, who ever felt the grace of this man were there as 
well. He will be missed but his spirit will live on in the lives of all 
he touched.

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