Saturday, June 7, 1997

Little-known nun among church's most powerful officials

By MATTHEW T. GAMBER / Religion News Service

WASHINGTON - She is not ordained but moves easily among the princes and prelates of the Roman Catholic Church, wearing classic suits and pumps instead of a Roman collar. In a world dominated by men in black, Sister Sharon Euart is arguably one of the most powerful women in the church.

This month, Euart completes her eighth year as an associate general secretary of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) and its social policy arm, the U.S. Catholic Conference (USCC), the organization that coordinates the activities of nearly 400 bishops in 193 dioceses.

She is the first woman officer at the organization's general secretariat, making her the highest-ranking woman in the U.S. Catholic Church, according to Sister Mary Ann Walsh, NCCB spokeswoman.

"I'm not going to say she's the most important or powerful woman in the life of the Catholic Church in this country," said Russell Shaw, former secretary of communications at the NCCB, "but she does have a lot of influence in shaping the bishops' agenda and what questions get placed before them."

With two priests, Euart forms a trinity of associate general secretaries who report to Msgr. Dennis Schnurr, the general secretary.

Armed with a doctorate in canon law and master's degrees in administration and in the liberal arts from Johns Hopkins University, Euart oversees the support staff for the bishops' committees concerned with some of the church's most sensitive issues - liturgy, ecumenical affairs, doctrine, priesthood, women, laity, Hispanics and African-Americans.

"She would have been a very successful manager in the corporate world," said John Pistone, an Allstate Insurance executive for 24 years before going to work for Euart as a director for deacons. "But she makes decisions not just on bottom-line costs, but on what they will do to strengthen people and the church."

Five priests with various expertise and training are her deputies, a rarity in the Catholic Church. However, Euart, a Sister of Mercy of the Americas who does not publicly advocate for women's ordination, sees her life's work more as ministry than management.

"I never felt called to priesthood, though I have a call to religious life, to discipleship. That's the ministry I feel called to," she said, sitting behind a desk covered with neat and orderly piles of paper.

Euart, 52, acknowledges she has "broken traditions," and laughed while recalling attending her first closed session of the bishops when an elderly bishop told her, "You don't belong here, little girl."

Her response to potential adversaries, she said, is to demonstrate her credibility through preparation and working collaboratively with everyone from the highest cardinal to the most recent hire.

"My association with her has shown her to be a very competent, highly professional, dedicated woman of the church," said Bishop Anthony M. Pilla of Cleveland, president of the NCCB.

"Strengthening the Bonds of Peace," a 1995 statement by the bishops on the role of women in the church and society, is a Euart project she points to with pride. She sees herself as an example of what the bishops affirm in the letter - more women having responsible national positions in the church.

But not all Catholic women think Euart's approach is best, especially those looking for radical changes in the church.

"She's privy to all the executive sessions, but has no voice or vote. It's clerical work," said Sister Donna Quinn, an advocate of women's ordination and president of Chicago Catholic Women. "But she serves the bishops well, she's not some raving maniac like me."

Sister Mary Brian Costello, a fellow Mercy nun and former chief of staff for the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago, defended Euart's ministry, saying Euart is making changes in the church "in very carefully strategized ways."

At their semi-annual meeting June 19-21 in Kansas City, the bishops will consider policy changes Euart was instrumental in formulating, including the episcopacy's role within Catholic colleges and universities and a major reorganization of the bishops conferences.

"There's nothing 'nunny bunny' about her," said the Rev. Robert Geisinger, a Jesuit priest and future canon law professor at Gregorian University in Rome. "She has to be a wolf in sheep's clothing to survive as associate general secretary at the USCC, where people eat egos for breakfast."

Her ministry in church administration started in 1977, when, as a young nun serving as assistant principal at Mercy High School in Baltimore, she accepted the invitation of Archbishop William D. Borders to be his first intern in a program designed to promote "shared responsibility" between women and clergy.

"You could see, even then, her interest, competence and balance in judging people and in reaching out to them," said Borders. He encouraged her to pursue the degree in canon law at Catholic University that helped her land her current position with the bishops.

Cardinal Bernardin was also a big supporter of Euart. She said they worked closely for five years on the conference reorganization plans and his picture sits on her desk next to the delicate, wooden statue of St. Joseph he gave her when she visited him on his death bed last November.

"He told me to always remember him with the statue," Euart recalled. At the bishops' meeting following Bernardin's death, Euart held the statue as the bishops voted in favor of the structural plan she and the cardinal had devised.

"She does not come out of a classic seminary background," said Dolores Leckey, executive director of the NCCB's Committee on the Laity. "She understands the importance of relationships, and she tries to till common ground."

Leckey said going-away parties, Christmas gatherings and regular lunches with fellow directors are ways Euart has brought a woman's touch to the mostly male environment of the bishops headquarters near Catholic University in Washington.

Euart said she enjoys quilting, reading and catching a full two hours of TV morning news on a rare day off from work. She recently completed a quilt for the 75th birthday of her mother, who still lives in Atlanta, Euart's hometown. Feminist theologian Elizabeth Johnson of Fordham University is among her favorite authors.

One day, Euart might break another tradition and be named the first female general secretary of the NCCB. Nothing in the Code of Canon Law, which she knows so well, prevents it.

The Rev. Tom Reese, an expert on the U.S. church hierarchy, thinks Euart would make an excellent choice.

"It would send a good message about the bishops wanting to put woman in high-profile positions," said Reese. "The question is how she would be received at the Vatican."

Said Euart, employing the tact and concern for which she is known, "Relationships would have to change some. Yes, it's possible, but not probable."