I’ve been out all day and so I am only now hearing from friends that Archbishop Raymond “Dutch” Hunthausen died yesterday. He was 96.

What a great man — he was humble, pastoral, an attentive listener, about as unpretentious as any church leader I have met, a man of integrity, courage, and faith. The last of the American bishops to have attended all four sessions of Vatican II (1962-65), he was cut from the same cloth as St. Pope John XXIII who convened the Council and as the current Pope Francis.

“Like Pope Francis, he put the emphasis on mercy and compassion rather than law and doctrine,” said John McCoy, who is the author of a book about the prelate called A Still and Quiet Conscience: The Archbishop Who Challenged a Pope, a President, and a Church.

For his commitment to gospel principles he suffered from pressure and punishment by both ecclesial and political powers and, in my estimation, handled himself with almost unfathomable patience, integrity, and grace when attacked by ultra-conservative Catholics over the years.

Although not a perfect man (he acknowledged, for example, he was slow to understand and act as decisively and effectively as he later wished he had in response to priests guilty of pedophilia) he was a quiet prophet who protested against nuclear proliferation and the stockpiling of weapons of mass destruction (The Trident Submarine was based in his archdiocese), withheld his war tax, and called for non-violent resistance based on Jesus’ gospel of life. He advocated for women and lay leaders in ministry (this is how I knew him), called for and enacted greater collaboration between clergy and laity, was active in ecumenical dialogue and fostered interfaith endeavors, treated gay persons and organizations in Seattle with respect, dignity, and compassion especially through the height of the A.I.D.S. epidemic in the 1980’s, was committed to the poor and most vulnerable, and led not with top-down authoritarianism and rigid legalism but with love and mercy.

Having worked as a teacher, coach, and college president, he was appointed Bishop of Helena, Montana in 1962 and later served as the Archbishop of Seattle from 1975 – 1991. He took the vision of Vatican II seriously and encouraged renewal in the Church. Among his many recognitions, in 1982 he was given the Thomas Merton Award by the Thomas Merton Center for Peace and Justice and in 1986 received the Pope Paul VI Teacher of Peace Award.

The church universal’s future would shine brighter if its leaders and members emulated his humility, grace, compassion, and love in service to the dream of God coming true on earth as it is in heaven.