By Gretchen Keiser

The new apostolic administrator of the archdiocese of Atlanta, Bishop James P. Lyke, OFM, 51, says he is coming in "knowing that I will give my very best" to the archdiocese.

After 11 years as an auxiliary bishop in Cleveland, Bishop Lyke is ready for the new challenge before him, he says, although his appointment is necessarily "bittersweet."

"I'm happy to be named as apostolic administrator. It is an honor," Bishop Lyke said in an interview July 10, the day he was appointed to fill the vacancy created by the resignation for health reasons of Archbishop Eugene A. Marino, SSJ.

"Coming in to take the place of a man I greatly admire," Bishop Lyke said, tempers the normal excitement of such an appointment.

The bishop, a Franciscan who is one of the 13 black bishops in the United States, will move to the archdiocese officially August 11 and celebrate Mass at the Cathedral of Christ the King Sunday, August 12.

His appointment by Pope John Paul II is effective immediately.

Bishop Lyke came to Atlanta July 9, meeting that evening with the College of Consultors, an advisory body of priests. His appointment was announced by the Vatican at 6 a.m. July 10 in Washington, D.C. A press conference was held at the Catholic Center in Atlanta at 10:30 a.m. Bishop Lyke also met with the heads of archdiocesan offices and departments that morning, and walked through the offices later, meeting staff informally.

Some 15 to 20 priests and 20 Catholic Center staff members listened to the bishop respond to press questions and applauded him when he was introduced.

In the interview, Bishop Lyke said that he intended to give his priority in Atlanta to parishes, and had canceled commitments that would take him outside the diocese. He said he would continue to try and minimize those appointments that would keep him from archdiocesan work.

Despite the friendly cautions of staff, Bishop Lyke said that he intends to visit every parish, mission and Catholic institution in the archdiocese by Christmas.

In the Cleveland diocese, Bishop Lyke has served as vicar for the urban region, the part of the diocese that embraces the city of Cleveland. There are four auxiliary bishops under Bishop Anthony Pilla. The urban region has within its boundaries 73 parishes, 50 Catholic elementary schools, 21 social service agencies, 40 hunger centers and seven Catholic high schools, Bishop Lyke said.

While it is geographically concentrated, the number of Catholics in the urban region is similar to the number in the archdiocese of Atlanta.

There are 140,600 Catholics in the urban region and 809,300 Catholics in the entire diocese of Cleveland. The archdiocese of Atlanta has a Catholic population of 155,000 to 170,000 Catholics.

Born on the southside of Chicago in 1939, Bishop Lyke is the youngest of seven children. His mother, a single parent, converted to Catholicism after she placed him in a Catholic grade school in fourth grade, admiring the discipline of the Religious, the bishop said. Six of the seven children became Catholic. Part of his childhood experience is living in a federal housing project and being on welfare, Bishop Lyke said.

FRANCISCAN PRIEST

He joined the Franciscan order in 1959, studying at St. Francis Novitiate in Teutopolis, IL, and obtaining his bachelor of arts degree in philosophy at Our Lady of Angels House of Philosophy through Quincy College in Illinois. He holds a master's of divinity from St. Joseph Theological Seminary in Teutopolis and received a Ph.D. in theology in 1981 from The Union Graduate School in Cincinnati.

First assigned as a religion teacher at a Franciscan high school in Parma, Ohio, he asked to be transferred to a black parish in Memphis, TN, following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis in 1968.

Earlier he had met Dr. King and worked in Cleveland's Operation Breadbasket, a program that led to his attending meetings Dr. King directed.

The fact that the King slaying took place on the anniversary of the death of Franciscan St. Benedict the Black struck a deep chord in him. His Franciscan superiors assigned him to St. Thomas Church in Memphis, where he stayed for nine years as pastor and administrator of an elementary school, apparently the first black priest in Tennessee.

Later he served for two years as pastor of St. Benedict the Black Church in Grambling, LA, and as Newman Center chaplain at the university.

He became an auxiliary bishop in Cleveland in 1979, when the ordinary of the diocese was Bishop James Hickey, now the Cardinal-Archbishop of Washington, D.C.

Cardinal Hickey said Bishop Lyke has been a "close friend and co-worker since 1979."

"His wise and loving service will be a source of real strength for the Church of Atlanta. I pray that the Lord will truly bless him in his new responsibilities," Cardinal Hickey said.

Bishop Pilla cited Bishop Lyke's "vision, insights regarding cultural diversity, his commitment to justice for all people, his warm and endearing ways, his ability to enable persons -- all this will undoubtedly enrich the lives of all he is now called to serve in the archdiocese of Atlanta."

ETHNIC DIVERSITY

In serving as vicar for the urban region covering Cleveland, Bishop Lyke was pastor of an ethnically diverse area, said Rick Krivanka, the director of pastoral planning for the Cleveland diocese. The city has a racial mixture that is nearly evenly divided between white and black, with a significant Hispanic community and many ethnic pockets including Polish Hungarian, German, Italian, Korean and Vietnamese, he said.

Bishop Lyke has shown a real commitment to helping people of different ethnic groups "live together and form communities together," the planner said.

The bishop also called an unprecedented urban region pastors' convention, held over several days, that led to a multi-year planning process for the future of the "Church in the city."

Among the distinguishing characteristics of the process, Krivanka said, are that it began in the parishes with self-study rather than with a high-level committee, and that it took diocesan personnel out in the field. Lay people were trained to lead the self-study. "Bishop Lyke attended a great number of these meetings, which were lay-run. He would react," Krivanka said. "He's very good" at spontaneous exchange.

His co-worker for 11 years, Krivanka said," It's just been a real joy. I don't say that lightly." He cited Bishop Lyke's ability to listen, to hear candid opinions, and to be responsive to needs.

"There is no worry about formality and title," he said. "I really had a thing about being honest. I could be with him. He also has a great sense of humor."

BLACK CATHOLICS

While Bishop Lyke has been in Cleveland since 1979, his former parishioners in Louisiana and Tennessee recall his impact there as a pioneer in the early 1970s of the movement to bring elements of African American culture into the liturgy and the parish.

St. Thomas in Memphis was "the only black parish and there was a sizeable black population," said Randy Bailey, assistant professor at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta who married a member of the parish. Bishop Lyke "helped (parishioners) claim and express their identity in very exciting ways back in the early 70s," Bailey said. "He also was one who was able to not only bring pride to blacks, but was able to relate well to the white power structure in Memphis."

Bailey also recalled that then Father Lyke helped he and his wife plan their interfaith marriage and required couples in the parish to take a 10-week marriage preparation course. "He would take pride in the fact that at the end of the course some couples decided not to get married," Bailey said. "He was right on target in the early 70s believing the Church should help to avoid marriages that might end in divorce."

A friend of the bishop's for 20 years, Father John Ford, called him "a bridge" in some areas of tension and dissension in the Church, able to communicate "both what the magesterium would indicate and hold out, and the struggles of some groups to live up to" the Church's teaching. "He is a helpful person to have in the episcopacy right now because of some of the divisions in the Church. He serves that bridge role very well."

His relationships with priests are not condescending, Father Ford said. "He relates first and foremost as a brother priest. This is the way he approaches priests and he anticipates a fraternal and supportive response in kind because that is his posture."

"I think it might be helpful for people to know that ecumenical concerns are a very fundamental issue for him," Father Ford offered.

His friend and colleague "has the ability to blend the administrative and the pastoral in his episcopacy, which is a rare gift."

SPIRITUALITY

The bishop is rooted in his Franciscan spirituality, Father Ford added. "A lot of people sometimes want a black ordinary to be a social activist more than anything else. Bishop Lyke is not only conscious of a need to address the issue of racism and social concerns. He's primarily a Franciscan with a sense of spirituality he works with."

A "hands-on" person who is a very hard worker, Bishop Lyke relaxes with classical music and modern jazz and enjoys the theater, said Bishop Joseph Francis, auxiliary bishop of Newark.

As president of the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus, he coordinated the publication of Lead Me, Guide Me, the first African-American Catholic hymnal, a foundational work in the black Catholic community's effort to blend black cultural elements and the Mass. He wrote an introductory article in the hymnal on the theme of inculturation. Father J. Glenn Murray, SJ, one of the contributors to the hymnal and a friend, said the bishop has a strong dedication to black priests and seminarians around the country, spending hours giving "genuine care" to the needs of his brothers in the priesthood. "I think priests will like him because he listens," Father Murray said. "You get the clear impression that it is authentic listening."

He finds him discerning and "wise" in difficult situations. He also notes his dedication to the celebration of the liturgy. "He presides well. He preaches well. He is a liturgist's dream."

Bishop Lyke was instrumental in the creation of a Black Liturgy Subcommittee of the national Bishops' Committee on the Liturgy, a concern that has been important to him for nearly 20 years now, Father Murray said. He is currently a member of that subcommittee.

On the national bishops' conference, he is currently a member of the administrative committee and the administrative board, the Committee for Pro-life Activities and the Communications Committee. In the past he has been a board member of the Campaign for Human Development, the bishops' social justice campaign, and he is currently a member of Pax Christi USA, the NAACP and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

This February he published a pastoral addressed to African American youth in the diocese of Cleveland, "Say Not 'I Am Too Young.'" He dedicated the letter to Sister Thea Bowman, FSPA, the vibrant black Religious who was his friend. He invited her to the parish he pastored in Louisiana in the late 1970s. He is now promoting her cause for canonization, and will assume leadership of the Sister Thea Bowman Foundation formerly directed by Archbishop Marino.

Bishop Lyke said it was unusual to appoint a bishop to be apostolic administrator of a diocese whose bishop had resigned. Normally in that situation a priest of the diocese is chosen by the College of Consultors to serve as apostolic administrator until a new bishop is named to head the diocese permanently.

Bishop Lyke said he saw the unusual move of naming a bishop to administer the diocese as "a sign that the Holy Father has great concern for the archdiocese of Atlanta," because it has only been two years since Archbishop Marino filled the vacancy created by the death of Archbishop Thomas Donnellan.

An apostolic administrator has the authority and responsibility to administer the archdiocese, but normally does not initiate any major new actions or changes, leaving those decisions to the future archbishop.

Bishop Lyke said that "it appears a logical conclusion" that his appointment would lead toward his becoming the next archbishop of Atlanta, but "it is all in the hands of the Holy See."

(Paula Day also contributed to this report.)