By Annysa Johnson
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
February 23, 2009
http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/40067412.html
[with timeline]
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| Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan will leave for New York after six years in Milwaukee.. View a photo gallery of his introduction in New York and a look at his time in Milwaukee. |
Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, whose gregarious pastoral style endeared him to a Catholic community in need of a morale boost, was named archbishop of New York this morning.
Sources with knowledge of the appointment said Sunday that Pope Benedict XVI would name the 59-year-old Dolan to succeed retiring Cardinal Edward M. Egan. The appointment was made official early today.
Dolan will take over an archdiocese of 2.5 million Catholics in what many consider the highest-profile position in the U.S. Catholic Church. The appointment all but ensures that Dolan ultimately will be named a cardinal.
Dolan is on vacation, and archdiocese spokeswoman Julie Wolf declined to comment.
A Missouri native who came to Milwaukee in August 2002, Dolan established himself as an openly devout bishop with a sharp intellect. A church historian who speaks three languages and reads three more, he nevertheless developed a reputation for speaking plainly to his flock, whether it was asking them to return to the practice of making confession or to give to his annual fund appeal.
Dolan is credited with working to heal and reinvigorate the local church, home to 682,000 Catholics. He has drawn accolades for his support of Catholic schools, priests and seminarians. Enrollment at St. Francis de Sales Seminary is at a 20-year high, which many attribute to Dolan's example and emphasis on vocations.
Church officials say he has taken steps to improve the archdiocese's financial position and address the fallout from the scandal that hastened the retirement and stained the legacy of his predecessor, Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland.
"There's a lot of gratitude for what he's done here," said Father Steven Avella, a Catholic historian and professor of history at Marquette University. "He's a personable and decent man who listened and tried his best to lead the archdiocese through some very difficult times."From St. Louis
Dolan came to Milwaukee from St. Louis, where he began his career as a parish priest and later served a year as an auxiliary bishop. In the intervening years, he worked in Washington as secretary to the papal nuncio - the Vatican's ambassador to the United States - and later as rector of the Pontifical North American College, an elite seminary in Rome.
He arrived in Milwaukee at one of the most difficult times for area Catholics. Already demoralized by years of clergy sex abuse revelations, they were stunned in 2002 by Weakland's admission that he had paid $450,000 in 1998 to silence a man with whom he'd had "an inappropriate relationship" years earlier.
Where Weakland was shaped by the liberalizing philosophies of Vatican II in the 1960s, Dolan has reflected the style, character and priorities of John Paul II, Avella said.
In Milwaukee, Dolan quickly engaged the faithful, drawing a standing ovation from a record 14,000 people who turned out to hear him celebrate Mass at Irish Fest in his first days here. He could smoothly work a dinner crowd or mingle with families during parish visits, and he seemed as comfortable with a beer or a ball game as he was immersed in solemn ritual."He's never lost that sense of being a parish priest," said Father Donald Hying, rector of St. Francis de Sales. "His approach to everything is to look through the eyes of a parish priest to ask: 'How do we love the people in the pews? How does the humanity of a priest attract people to Jesus?'?"
Dolan addressed the sex abuse scandal early, convening what was believed to be the first meeting of its kind involving victims, mental health professionals, law enforcement officers and church hierarchy. He drew high marks from victim advocates early on, but the relationship soured over how to implement the archdiocese's victim mediation and settlement program, the publication of abusive priests' names, and Dolan's opposition to legislation that would have extended or eliminated the statute of limitations on the filing of clergy sex abuse cases.
To date, the archdiocese has spent about $26.5 million beyond what insurance has covered on costs related to the sex abuse scandal, including legal fees and settlements. Jerry Topcziewski, Dolan's chief of staff, would not say how much of that money was paid to victims, but he said the archdiocese has settled with more than 170 people. To cover costs, it has sold property and assets, even putting the Cousins Center, the archdiocese's sprawling headquarters complex, on the block.
Victim advocates say Dolan still could have done more to address the issue. Peter Isely of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said that under Dolan, the archdiocese has failed to go after abusers in the religious order ranks - something the archdiocese says it has no authority to do - and failed to turn in at least two priests, one a diocesan priest, it had evidence about. The church has also never reprimanded any officials who participated in the coverups, he said.
"He'll be leaving without having done the most basic responsibility that he had on this issue when he came here," Isely said.Financial challenges
Under Dolan's direction, the 10-county archdiocese merged or closed more than 20 parishes and about eight schools, and eliminated the academic program at its seminary, sending seminarians elsewhere for that part of their training. He slashed the number of jobs at the archdiocese by nearly 40% and cut spending and programs in an effort to balance its budgets.
A passionate proponent of stewardship - the concept of giving sacrificially to the church - Dolan in 2007 launched the archdiocese's most ambitious fund-raising initiative to date, a $105 million capital campaign to bolster Catholic schools and religious education. Pledges totaling more than $57 million had come in less than halfway through the campaign.
Dolan said in a January interview that he recognized the need for a capital campaign almost immediately after arriving in Milwaukee.
"Even if we had not had the horror of the clergy sex abuse scandal, this would have been needed," he said. "We're not denying the fact that it makes it especially urgent, as we've had to trim missions and services because the resources are so strained."
He challenged Catholics to fundamentally rethink the way they give.
"We can't live on fish fries anymore," he said in a recent interview. "Stewardship is the only way we're going to make it."
Dolan's influence has been felt well beyond his local archdiocese. He travels the world as chairman of Catholic Relief Services, the church's international aid agency; he's involved in the national Catholic-Jewish dialogue; and has forged strong relationships within Milwaukee's Interfaith Alliance.
"I think his interest and aptitude for ecumenical and interfaith relationships will serve him and the church well wherever he is called to lead," said the Rev. Paul Stumme-Diers, bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Milwaukee Synod.
Dolan is widely seen as indefatigable, routinely working 16-hour days, much of it on pastoral visits.
Not everyone was so enamored.
Catholic critics complain that Dolan toes the Vatican line and does not abide dissent.
"Archbishop Dolan, like most bishops, has a my-way-or-the-highway mentality," said Nancy Moews, coordinator of the local chapter of Voice of the Faithful. "His reign has produced assaults on freedom of thought, speech and the primacy of personal conscience."
Dan Maguire, a Marquette University professor of moral theology and former priest, called Dolan "a back-slapping autocrat."
"Under that affable exterior is an arrogant and steely conservative," said Maguire, who was rebuked by Dolan in 2006 after he sent a letter to U.S. bishops suggesting Catholics may rightfully dissent on issues of abortion and same-sex unions, and that bishops don't have the last word on moral debate.
Shortly after, Maguire said, he was banned from speaking at local parishes.
Topcziewski, Dolan's chief of staff, said the archbishop asked priests not to allow Maguire to speak because his views were at odds with Catholic teachings.
"I've been here for 38 years, and no other archbishop has taken that kind of action," Maguire said.
Tom Reese, a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University, said it's no surprise that Dolan would voice criticism of dissident Catholic views.
"He's a team player, a very loyal bishop to the pope and the Vatican," Reese said. "On the other hand, he's not excommunicating people and denying Communion. He doesn't want to play police and inquisitor. But?.?.?.?if a priest or an organization is going to take positions contrary to the Vatican, he's going to defend that."Looking to the future
Dolan leaves at a difficult time for the archdiocese. It is just halfway through the capital campaign, and there is concern that giving could trail off if the economy doesn't pick up. And although money from the campaign is not going to pay off abuse settlements, the archdiocese is bracing itself for possible bankruptcy if it loses a series of civil fraud cases brought by sex abuse victims that are expected to go to trial this summer.
No one was willing immediately to put together a list of possible successors to Dolan in Milwaukee.
Milwaukee's two auxiliary bishops, Richard J. Sklba and William P. Callahan, are considered unlikely choices. Sklba, at 73, is too close to retirement, and although Callahan is just 57, the Vatican does not normally elevate bishops within their own diocese, observers said.
One name that is likely to be circulated is Chicago Auxiliary Bishop Joseph N. Perry, an African-American canon lawyer who was ordained and spent 20 years in Milwaukee, though one observer suggested the Vatican would be unlikely to appoint a bishop to oversee his seminary peers.
"Whoever we get, I hope he's someone who has an appreciation for our history, our culture, the distinct realities of the Midwest," Avella said. "Someone who (would) help the Catholic Church continue to be an active and vital force in southeastern Wisconsin."
Dolan will face his own challenges in New York, one of the most complex and ethnically diverse archdiocese in the country, in a media capital of the world where he will be scrutinized by outside and special interests in a way he has not been in Milwaukee, say experts on the Vatican and the Catholic Church in America.
Among the challenges, they said: persuading New Yorkers that he understands the history and character of the place; getting a handle on the administrative complexities of an operation the size of a Fortune 500 company; and handling financial pressures that will likely necessitate more parish and school closures.
In addition, he will be expected to be a spokesman for the U.S. church - a critical position now because the new president, Barack Obama, is seen as being at odds with some core Catholic teachings, said John Allen, a well-known Catholic Church observer who covers the Vatican for the National Catholic Reporter.
"The archbishop of New York is expected to be a national leader," and his concerns are not exclusively the local church," Allen said. "This is the big difference between Milwaukee and New York."
Dolan's affable persona is likely to serve him well in New York, where Egan has kept a low public profile and is not particularly well-liked by his priests, according to Reese of Woodstock.
"He's got that Irish charm," Reese said of Dolan.
"I think the people in New York will like him."
Timeline
* Born: Feb. 6, 1950, in St. Louis.
* Education: St. Louis Preparatory Seminary in Shrewsbury, Mo.; bachelor's degree, Cardinal Glennon College in Shrewsbury; master's degrees, Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome and Catholic University in Washington, D.C.; doctorate, Catholic University.
* Ordained: June 19, 1976, by Edward T. O'Meara, then auxiliary bishop of St. Louis.
* 1976-'79: Served as associate pastor at Immacolata Parish in Richmond Heights, Mo.
* 1979-'83: Earned master's and doctoral degrees in church history from Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C.
* 1983-'87: Served two St. Louis-area parishes, Cure of Ars in Shrewsbury and Little Flower in Richmond Heights.
* 1987-'92: Secretary to the Apostolic Nunciature, the Vatican's embassy, in Washington, D.C.
* 1992-'94: Became vice rector of the Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in St. Louis.
* 1994-2001: Became rector of the Pontifical North American College in Rome.
* June 2001: Named auxiliary bishop of St. Louis.
* June 2002: Named archbishop of Milwaukee
* February 2009: Named archbishop of New York
Career
* Associate pastor at Immacolata Parish in Richmond Heights, Mo.
* Served at two other St. Louis-area parishes.
* From 1987 to 1992, he was secretary to the Apostolic Nunciature in Washington, D.C.
* In 1992, he became vice rector of the Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in St. Louis.
* In 1994, he became rector of the Pontifical North American College in Rome.
* In June 2001, he was named auxiliary bishop of St. Louis.
* Installed Aug. 28, 2002 as archbishop of Milwaukee archdiocese
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