Ecumenists from throughout the United States took note of the retirement of Auxiliary Bishop Richard J. Sklba of Milwaukee, who served as chair of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs from 2005-08. In that capacity he won the admiration and friendship of many in the ecumenical and interreligious enterprise throughout the country. This learned and amiable bishop was involved in all aspects of ecumenical and interreligious developments and controversies during his tenure as chair.
Born in Racine, Wis., in 1935 and educated in Rome, earning a degree in Sacred Scripture, he was ordained a priest in 1959 and furthered his studies at the Pontifical Biblical Institute where he was present for the opening session of the Second Vatican Council in 1962. Upon the completion of his studies in Rome he returned to Milwaukee to teach Scripture at St. Francis Seminary. In 1979 he was ordained an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, one of the youngest bishops in the country.
An interesting aside about Bishop Sklba’s appointment as bishop is found in Archbishop Rembert Weakland’s recent book, “A Pilgrim in a Pilgrim’s Church.” He wrote that Bishop Sklba’s ordination almost never took place. According to Archbishop Weakland, Bishop Sklba had chaired a committee of American biblical scholars that “issued a document stating that from a strictly biblical point of view, the ordination of women could not be decided one way or the other. But a codicil was added that upset the pope: The committee further stated that a positive answer would be more in keeping with the biblical evidence.”
Pope John Paul II was about to cancel the ordination until the archbishop and Bishop Sklba flew to Rome to explain his position. Ultimately, the pope “finally gave in” according to the book. Archbishop Weakland also said in his book of Bishop Sklba, “His knowledge of Scripture and his personal sanctity were always evident. In his selection as auxiliary bishop, God was indeed good to me and to the people of Milwaukee.”
As a Scripture scholar, Bishop Sklba was active in the Catholic Bible Association of America and is considered a national voice in interreligious and ecumenical dialogue, particularly among Jews and Lutherans of the Evangelical Church in America.
“He’s made an outstanding contribution as an ecumenist,” said Father James Massa, secretariat for the USCCB department of ecumenical and interreligious affairs. Father Massa also described Bishop Sklba as “a Vatican II priest,” who had “to struggle with all of the effects of the Council, too, of the difficulty implementing those changes. He has been a careful interpreter of the Council. He was on the cutting edge of change in that period after the Council.”
For more than 30 years Bishop Sklba served on various committees of the USCCB, including priestly life and ministry, doctrine, liturgy, permanent diaconate and marriage and family. Bishop Sklba has co-chaired the national Lutheran/Catholic Dialogue since 1998. In 2006, he was invited to attend the ninth General Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Porto Alegre, Brazil, as a member of the official Vatican delegation headed by Cardinal Walter Kaspar. He has been an invited ecumenical guest at many national meetings of the country’s mainline Protestant churches. He has also participated in countless meetings and projects with Jewish scholars of the country in an effort to promote interreligious harmony. One of the highlights of his vast ecumenical and interreligious career was in 2008 when he had the honor of introducing the nation’s religious leaders from several traditions to Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to the United States.
Bishop Sklba has served the church and the wider religious community faithfully and with great warmth and zeal. While he deserves a little more time to himself in retirement, I’m sure he will remain active in promoting interreligious harmony and unity every chance he gets.
Father Joseph D. Wallace is coordinator, Ecumenical and Inter-religious Affairs, Diocese of Camden.
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