As Archbishop of Vancouver, Archbishop Adam Exner was also publisher of The B.C. Catholic from 1991 to 2004. For six years, Father Vincent Hawkswell was editor while Maureen Creelman (then Murphy) was a volunteer writer.
By Father Vincent Hawkswell
The first thing I knew about Archbishop Adam Exner, OMI, was that Archbishop James Carney had a photograph of him on the wall of his office.
It was 1977 and I had approached Archbishop Carney to see whether he would consider me for the priesthood. Adam Exner had then been Bishop of Kamloops for three years.
I knew that Archbishop Carney was a staunch defender of the Church, and I presumed that anyone whose photograph he had on his wall must be the same. As I found later, especially during my 16 years as editor of The B.C. Catholic, I was right.
The two men must have formed a bond when both objected to the ambiguity of the so-called “Winnipeg statement” issued by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops in September 1968 in response to Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae.
Many years later after his retirement Archbishop Exner identified himself to me as the author of the clarification promulgated by the CCCB in April 1969 when he was professor of moral theology at Newman Theological College in Edmonton.
I was desolated when Archbishop Carney died, but I was delighted when Archbishop Exner, by then Archbishop of Winnipeg, was appointed to succeed him.
I had my front-page headline already planned: “Exner! Exner! Read all about it!”
Asked whether he would continue the so-called “conservative” traditions of Archbishop Carney, Archbishop Exner said, “I don’t like labels. I’ve been labelled conservative and I’ve been labelled liberal. I will try to be faithful to the Second Vatican Council and in the process I assume that I will make mistakes like other people. But I think I’ll be able to make a contribution.”
A holder of master’s degrees in philosophy and theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and a doctor’s degree in theology from the University of Ottawa, the Archbishop said he was coming to Vancouver “with my eyes and ears open and my mouth shut. I am going there to learn.”
At his installation in Holy Rosary Cathedral on Aug. 15, 1991, he said, “Perhaps you might wonder what I expect of you and what you can expect of me.”
He continued, “I expect that you will all become saints.”
As the congregation laughed, he added seriously, “This is what Jesus wants for you, and I cannot hope for less. For my part, I pledge that I will strive to give all I am, all I have, and all I can do to serve as he served.”
And that is what he did during the next 12 years, especially by his support for Catholic schools and encouragement of vocations to the priesthood and the consecrated life. I have nothing but the fondest memories of him.
Before he moved back to his home province of Saskatchewan he told me that he spent his retirement largely in prayer.
“Sometimes I pray for eight hours,” he said.
I am sure that much of it would have been for the Archdiocese of Vancouver.
Reporting on Archbishop Exner, in Greek
By Maureen Creelman
I was a volunteer with The B.C. Catholic when Archbishop Adam Exner moved to Vancouver in 1991.
I had been used to working under Archbishop James Carney, who had written out his homilies in advance, so all we had to do at the newspaper was get a copy and check that he actually said what he had written.
However, when I asked Archbishop Exner for a copy of his homily, he replied that he had nothing but notes – in which he used Greek letters as abbreviations!
Fortunately as a physics teacher I knew the Greek alphabet, and from the archbishop’s notes and my memory I could reconstruct what he had said. However, from then on we had to audio-record his homilies, get a typist to transcribe them, and then ask him to check them.
I remember the glow of pride I experienced when once, on handing back the typescript, he remarked, “Whoever put that together must have understood what I was saying!”
Archbishop Exner was invariably kind and courteous. If he wrote someone a note, it contained the name of the person he was writing to, his own name, and a “thank you!”
He was also relaxed; he never flaunted his learning or his position in the Church. After he had retired as Archbishop of Vancouver, I asked him how I should address him.
“Is it right to go on saying ‘Your Grace’?” I questioned.
He looked at me for a moment, and then he said, “My mother called me ‘Adam.’”
“I can’t call you ‘Adam,’” I objected.
“Then call me ‘Father Adam,’” he said.
And that is how I thought of him from then on.
He had a great sense of Church history and could quote the Fathers of the Church from memory. However, he never flaunted his learning.
I interviewed him after his 1993 ad limina visit to Rome, in which he had had a 15-minute interview with Pope John Paul II. (Ad limina visits are made to Rome by heads of dioceses every five years.
“Meeting the Pope is always a profound experience,” he said. “Even on the human level the Pope is amazing.”
However, “on the level of faith, it’s very different,” he said.
“You realize that the man you are talking to is the successor of Peter, to whom Jesus said, ‘You are the rock and on this rock I will build My Church. To you I give the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Peter, do you love me? Feed my lambs, feed my sheep. I have prayed for you that your faith may be strengthened; now go and strengthen your brethren.’ And you realize that at this moment Peter’s successor is strengthening one of his brethren.”
May “Father Adam” now reap the reward of his loyalty to Christ’s Church.