Editorials

...Edward was a gentleman of grace and serenity whose presence could be disarming, if not transforming...

...To insure this re- tion alism, and centralfusal and reinforce this re- ized authority) were more solve, it was necessary to or less unconsciously abstrengthen the power of sorbed in Catholic thought the papacy and make its and made normative...

...Edward loved the competition and said that it taught azine through its June 2000 issues...

...ing which period he earned a master's degree in political science from Columbia University and began volunteering EDWARD s. SKI «I M, 1904-2000 at The Commonweal...

...chusetts, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Williams Col- Edward contributed more than three thousand editorials, lege in 1925...

...pacy of John Paul II, which re-established balance and reinThe Commonweal staff, its readers, and supporters extend forced Catholic identity...

...He was a man of legendary acts of per- Vatican H "completed" the work of Vatican I by providing sonal charity and an undaunted advocate for social change...

...ed Catholic vision...

...their condolences to the Skillin family...

...Edward stepped down as editor in 1967 to assume the position of publisher, where he remained until his retirement in December 1998...

...a fuller theological understanding of the roles of bishops and Many in Congress and local government will be missing his of lay people...

...diately distorted by various secular ideologies-individualAmong his many awards were the 1987 Saint Francis de ism, egalitarianism, secularism, and the complacency and Sales Award from the Catholic Press Association, the 1990 self-indulgence of the prosperous middle classes...

...Edward weekly golf, Benedictine stability, bicycle riding, and com- became sole editor in 1947, a post he held until 1967...

...In this story, the main event is John Paul II...

...A infallible teaching role modern antimodernist explicit and central for Catholicism was born...

...Maybe this is why Pius IX must be canonized with John XXIII...

...over support for Franco in the Spanish Civil War, Edward For those of us privileged to work with Edward on the and Philip Burnham-who took a neutral position on the Commonweal staff, he will always remain a man of uncom- war-assumed co-editorship of The Commonweal, and mon faith, intelligence, stamina, and kindness...

...But issues as diverse as housing, rural electrification, French culthere was no position open at the time, so Edward worked ture, the integration of professional baseball, the Sinarquists for the publishing firm of Henry Holt for seven years, dur- (a secretive lay Catholic association in Mexico in the 1940s with fascist leanings), renewal of the Republican party following the Goldwater debacle, nuclear deterrence, and the challenge of China...

...The key, here, is again a judgment O'Malley's "The Millennium and the Papalization of Catholi- made concerning the papacy of Pius IX and the historical cism" (America, April 8), Avery Dulles's "The Papacy for a significance of Vatican II...

...wife of fifty-five years, the former Jane Edwards, and by In 1938, following a split among the magazine's editors five children, three foster children, and nine grandchildren...

...He addressed it was the most intelligent expression of Catholicism...

...In this, Edward said, he was influenced Edward Skillin was born in New York City on January by the thought of the American Benedictine Virgil Michel 23, 1904, attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massa- and by the philosopher Jacques Maritain...

...In 1934 he joined the magazine's staff, under the tutelage of Managing Editor George N. Shuster...

...When Jack Schwartz of Newsday asked him in 1995 what he thought was the most important editorial shift the magazine had taken during his tenure, Edward replied the 1938 editorial on Spain, and added modestly, as was his wont, "I think Harry Binsse and Philip Burnham wrote it, and I may have had a small hand in it...

...These examples helped me realize that in the In this narrative, the popes of the early nineteenth century, last decade rival interpretations of nineteenth- and twentieth- and especially Pius IX, represent a tragedy for Catholicism, a century Catholic history have coalesced and are now com- lost opportunity, in which the emergent, positive values of peting for our allegiance...

...His stewardship was steady, frugal, and, at times, nearly miraculous...

...He never seemed to be in a hurry, but set a precise schedule and routine that seldom varied...

...The only appropriate response to them, then, is amof a somewhat conservative cast, that covered some of the bivalence and discrimination...

...He helped establish the Commonweal Associates in 1959, and in 1982, when the magazine became a registered not-for-profit, he donated his majority stock to the foundation...

...He was ninety-six and had bers in order of precedence for their content and writing remained active until his illness, reading galleys for the mag- style...

...They and Garry Wills's Papal Sin (Doubleday...

...Catholic self-understand- If this is tragedy, the ing...

...His interests were catholic but his wishes modest...

...modernity (democratic republicanism, human rights, the leVersion One The first story goes like this...

...present papacy...

...ProvidenPax Christi Award from Saint John's University, Collegeville, tially, these trends were checked and then reversed by the paMinnesota, and a number of honorary degrees...

...In Edward S. Skillin, long-time editor and publisher of Com- a section of unsigned editorials titled "Week by Week," monweal, died on August 14 of complications resulting from Shuster would arrange the reports of younger staff mema stroke he had suffered in May...

...same period...

...Many popes were in- reign of Pius X (1903-14) volved in this part of the is tragedy replayed as story, but the paradig- farce...

...The same year he applied for work at The articles, reviews, and fund-raising appeals in his sixty-fiveCommonweal, as it was known then, because, he said, "I felt year working association with the magazine...

...Acmuting on the PATH [train from his home in New Jersey] cording to historian Rodger Van Allen (The Commonweal and that enabled him not only to keep the wolf from the door American Catholicism, Fortress, 1974), Edward helped shift of Commonweal, but to act, in good Franciscan fashion, as the magazine to a more socially attuned and renewal-mindthough Brother Wolf were just another friend of the family...

...And may the seeds thodoxy in some circles, Pius IX and John XXIII are seen as Edward has generously planted here produce a rich and en- two moments in a historical process that culminates in the during harvest...

...As Peter promptly published a landmark editorial deploring the Steinfels remarked on the occasion of Edward's ninetieth widespread tendency among Catholics to equate Franco's birthday, "there was some secret formula of daily Mass, anti-Communist crusade with the cause of the faith...

...In 1994, on the occasion of his ninetieth birthday, Edward consented to have his name attached to a new endowment for Commonweal's future, the Edward S. Skillin Endowment Fund, but said, almost ruefully, "Now I'll have to live up to it...

...days of our lives...

...He wrote for a variety of other jour- and North America, these achievements were almost immenals and edited The Commonweal Reader (Harper, 1949...

...In addition, I've contain much that is dangerous, but also much that is very recently listened to several talks about Catholic theology, good...

...No wonder Van Allen has called him the sine qua non of Commonweal...

...In response to a matic case is the long pa- second wave of opportupacy of Pius IX and the nity to discern the good decrees of Vatican I. These in modernity, following policies were then carried the leads of people like Commonweal 7 September 8, 2000...

...In response gitimate place of the natural sciences, historical consciousness to the threats of liberalism a sensitivity to religious and modernity, the offi- experience) were denied cial church, and especial- and repudiated entirely, ly the papacy, courage- while some negative feaously refused compro- tures of modernity (abmise and set itself against solute certainty, "foundathese evils in all their as- tionalism," "positivist" rapects...

...May Edward shine In this narrative, which has become a touchstone of orforever in God's resplendent presence...

...In this second story, liberalism Global Church" (America, July 15), Archbishop John Quinn's and modernity are understood as movements that, from the The Reform of the Papacy (Herder and Herder/Crossroad), beginning, were morally and intellectually ambiguous...

...11 Version Two The alternative narrative has yet to find Two versions of history I read Commonweal's ed- adequate expression, although many people have been paitorial on Pius IX (August 12), having recently read John tiently working on it...

...He exemplified the saying of Saint Francis de Sales, "If I could be born again, I would have few desires,' Commonweal 6 September 8, 2000 and he fulfilled the hope recited daily in the church's morn- forward in different styles and with different emphases by ing prayer that we "live a life of holiness and justice all the Leo XIII, Pius X, Pius XI, and Pius XII...

...Then he smiled...

...He is survived by his him to write concisely...

...The present time is seen as a third phase beyond them both...

...But in several places, especially Western Europe timely, pointed letters...