Leo Joseph Suenens
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Cardinal Leo Joseph Suenens (Ixelles, 16 July 1904-Mechelen, 6 May 1996) was a leader at the Second Vatican Council and an advocate of reform in the Catholic Church. He was ordained as a priest on 4 September 1927, appointed Archbishop of Mechelen on 24 November 1961, and elevated to Cardinal on 19 March 1962.
When Pope John XXIII called the world's bishops to Rome for a council which lasted four years [1962-1965], he found in Suenens a man who shared his views on the need for renewal in the Church. When the first session fell into organizational chaos under its weight of documents, it was Suenens who, at the invitation of the pope, rescued it from deadlock and essentially set the agenda for the entire Council. If Pope John opened the windows, it was Suenens who pulled back the curtains so that fresh air could circulate. Dialogue with other Christian denominations as well as with other religions, the proper role of the laity, modernization of canonical religious life for women, religious liberty, collaboration and corresponsibility in the Church were among the causes he advocated.
Pope Paul VI, who succeeded Pope John in June, 1963, made Cardinal Suenens one of the four moderators of the Council and in the opinion of many Church historians Suenens was the animateur and star among them.[citation needed]
Modest by temperament, Suenens would have deflected such appraisal with an engaging sense of humor. Still, it was he who influenced two main documents of the council, Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, and Gaudium et Spes, the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World.
| Styles of Leo Joseph Suenens |
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| Reference style | His Eminence |
| Spoken style | Your Eminence |
| Informal style | Cardinal |
| See | Brussels-Mechelen |
His successor, Godfried Danneels, described him as an excellent weather-forecaster who knew from which direction the wind was blowing in the Church, and an experienced strategist who realized that he could not change the wind's direction but could set the sails to suit it.
After the Council, Suenens committed himself to implementing its spirit, and not without controversy. In May, 1969, an interview he gave to the French press offering a critique of the Roman Curia became a cause célèbre worldwide. Ten years later, he reflected on the event and said: "There are times when loyalty demands more than keeping in step with an old piece of music. As far as I am concerned loyalty is a different kind of love. And this demands that we accept responsibility for the whole and serve the Church with as much courage and candor as possible."
Suenens was above all a man of great faith and profound trust in the working of the Holy Spirit in history. Those who knew him best speak of his formidable intellect, dauntless courage and unswerving loyalty to the Church.
