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	Bishop May Be Revealed Today Dallas: Several Sources Say D.C. Diocese Official to Succeed Grahmann By Jeffrey Weiss Dallas Morning News March 6, 2007 http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-bishop_06met.ART.State.Edition2.43eec7d.html Dallas Catholics may finally get a new bishop today. At least that's the buzz from a well-known blog and several prominent local Catholics. And while the Dallas Diocese did not respond to repeated calls Monday, all sources were reporting the same possibility. Bishop Charles Grahmann has been due for replacement since he turned 75 in July. That's the mandatory retirement age for Catholic bishops, although the pope can let a bishop serve longer. The name being mentioned as Bishop Grahmann's replacement is Kevin J. Farrell, the auxiliary bishop of Washington, D.C. His name was reported Monday by Whispers in the Loggia, a blog written by a Philadelphian named Rocco Palmo. Mr. Palmo, an independent blogger, writes about Catholic activities all over the world. He frequently speculates about Vatican appointments. Mr. Palmo's accuracy, while not perfect, is good enough that he's closely watched by Catholic insiders. William McCormick, partner in the law firm Fulbright & Jaworski, was one of the leaders of an unsuccessful 2004 petition drive to get Bishop Grahmann to step down over his handling of the child-abuse scandal. Mr. McCormick said Monday that he had heard Bishop Farrell was coming to Dallas from a source "close to the current bishop." Wick Allison, publisher of D Magazine, also has been a prominent Catholic critic of the current bishop. He posted Monday on the D Magazine blog, Frontburner, that he'd heard last week about the possibility of Bishop Farrell's arrival. Several Dallas priests who did not want to be identified also said Monday that they had heard Bishop Farrell was on his way. So is it true? The only people who know for sure are Bishop Grahmann, Bishop Farrell, their top staffs and a few top Vatican officials in Rome and Washington. Neither the Dallas nor Washington diocese released any information Monday. The Vatican releases official appointments at noon today in Rome. And that means Dallas will know if it has a new bishop at 5 a.m. local time. If the announcement is made, the new bishop and Bishop Grahmann will hold a news conference today where some details of the transition may be released. If the reports are true, Bishop Farrell will take over a diocese that has gone through considerable changes and controversy in recent years. The diocese says it has more than a million members, more than five times larger than when Bishop Grahmann took over in 1990. Most of the new arrivals are Hispanic, and Bishop Grahmann has made an effort to reach out to the new arrivals. But even before disclosures of child abuse by Catholic priests rocked the U.S. church elsewhere, the Dallas Diocese became infamous in 1997, with the civil trial of Rudolph "Rudy" Kos, who molested altar boys in three Dallas parishes. In 1999, the Vatican named Joseph Galante, a Philadelphia native then serving as bishop of Beaumont, Texas, as coadjutor bishop in Dallas. He was to govern alongside Bishop Grahmann and, presumably, succeed him. Such transitions usually take less than a year, and some local Catholics hoped that would be the case here. But Bishop Grahmann refused to step aside early. In 2004, the Vatican sent Bishop Galante to lead the diocese of Camden, N.J. According to the Washington archdiocese Web site, Bishop Farrell was born in Dublin, Ireland, in September 1947. He has served in Rome and Mexico and speaks fluent Spanish and Italian. Since March 2001, Bishop Farrell has been vicar general and moderator of the curia for the Archdiocese of Washington. He was ordained an auxiliary bishop in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 11, 2002. Contact: jweiss@dallasnews.com
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