UNITED STATES
Winston-Salem Journal
By Rocco Palmo
RELIGION NEWS SERVICE
As Pope Benedict XVI prepares to make his first major personnel move in the United States, American Catholics can expect the beginning of a subtle but substantive change in the makeup of the church's hierarchy.
Church observers expect the new pope to put his own stamp on the U.S. church and streamline a process that has been slowed by extra scrutiny applied in the wake of the sexual-abuse scandal. They also hope he will move quickly to fill a string of American seats that have been vacant for months.
For nearly 25 years, Benedict, as the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, played an advisory role in the appointment of bishops. When he was elected pope last April, he inherited the papacy's absolute authority to select suitable leaders for the world's 2,700 dioceses - 197 of which are in the United States.
Benedict faces his first major American test in choosing a new archbishop of San Francisco to succeed Archbishop William J. Levada. In May, Benedict called Levada to Rome to fill his former job as head of the church's doctrine office.