Archdiocesan College Of Consultors Elects Indianapolis Administrator

INDIANAPOLIS – In accordance with the stipulations of the Church’s Code of Canon Law, Monsignor William F. Stumpf was elected administrator of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis on Jan. 9 at the Archbishop Edward T. O’Meara Catholic Center in Indianapolis.

He was elected by the seven archdiocesan priests who serve on the archdiocesan college of consultors.

As archdiocesan administrator, Msgr. Stumpf will oversee the day-to-day business of the archdiocese until Pope Francis appoints a new shepherd for the Church in the archdiocese.

“It’s an honor and a privilege,” Msgr. Stumpf said of the election. ‘I take it very seriously. I love the archdiocese, and so it is always a privilege to serve when you love the Church.”

Msgr. Stumpf’s authority will be limited by canon law. He is prohibited, for example, from closing parishes or opening new ones.

He also cannot name pastors of parishes until the archdiocese has been without an archbishop for one year. Msgr. Stumpf is, however, able to name priests as parish administrators in the interim. Msgr. Stumpf will also need the approval of the college of consultors to call a man to be ordained a priest or deacon.

“The administrator is not to be making innovations,” said Msgr. Stumpf, who served as archdiocesan vicar general under Cardinal Tobin. “This is not a time of change. He’s just to maintain the archdiocese, to see us through this time of transition until the new archbishop comes.”

Msgr. Stumpf said that the fact that Pope Francis did not name an administrator for the archdiocese at the time that he appointed Cardinal Tobin to lead the Archdiocese of Newark, N.J., represented a “vote of confidence” by the Vatican about the Church in central and southern Indiana.

“If there were concerns that the archdiocese was divided or had serious issues or struggles, I think Rome would have stepped in and named an apostolic administrator,” said Msgr. Stumpf. “That’s happened in other dioceses.”

He also noted that Cardinal Tobin—after he was appointed to lead the Newark Archdiocese, but before he was installed there—began a “pastoral assessment” of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis that “gives the new archbishop a real report of who is the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, what are the key concerns and strengths of the archdiocese that he’s going to be (shepherding).

“We should be (praying) that God sends us a wonderful new shepherd and … that we prepare our hearts to welcome that new shepherd,” he said. “It’s going to be very important to make him feel a part of the archdiocese.”

The Message is grateful to The Criterion, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, for providing this report.