Spokane Bishop Blase Cupich has been tapped to succeed Cardinal Francis George as archbishop of Chicago in the most important ecclesiastical appointment facing Pope Francis, according to the Associated Press.

Cupich, 65, would succeed the cancer-stricken, 77-year-old George, a conservative disciplinarian in the U.S. Catholic hierarchy. A Saturday morning news conference is scheduled in Chicago.

Cupich will be heading his third diocese, having served as bishop of Rapid City, South Dakota — Lakota Indians gave him the nickname “White Thunder” — and since 2010 as bishop of the troubled Spokane diocese.  In 2004, Spokane was one of the first American dioceses to file for bankruptcy due to lawsuits over sexual abuse by its clergy.

The authoritative website “Whispers in the Loggia” has described Cupich as “one of the most competent and effective (and, indeed tech savvy) members of the Stateside bench.”  It described his role as “lead man” in dealing with fallout from the sex abuse scandal that hit America’s Catholic Church in the last decade.

But Cupich was a strong opponent of Washington’s marriage equality referendum in 2012.  He will be going to Illinois, which recently legalized same-sex marriage.

In a 2012 letter to parishoners, called “Some Reflections on Referendum 74,” Cupich argued:

“In sum, we are facing a decision about making a major shift in an institution that serves as the foundation stone of society.  I would argue that this is not about granting equality to same sex couples, but of changing the identity of marriage.”

Cupich’s reflections were notably milder in tone than the strident anti-marriage-equality letters of Yakima Bishop Joseph Tyson.  Cupich acknowledged that conflicting positions on same-sex marriage are “deeply held and passionately argued,” adding:

“Proponents of the redefinition of marriage are often motivated by compassion for those who have shown courage in refusing to live in the fear of being rejected for their sexual orientation.  It is a compassion that is very personal, for those who have suffered and continue to suffer are close and beloved friends and family members.”

Cupich has long been active in the National Council of Catholic Bishops, and currently chairs the Bishops Committee on the Protection of Children and Young People.

Cupich presided, on All Saints Day last November, at the Spokane memorial service for former U.S. House Speaker Tom Foley, a pro-choice Catholic.

But he was not out front among those rumored for the Chicago posting.  Atlanta Archbishop Wilton Gregory, the church’s most prominent African-American bishop, had experience as an auxiliary bishop of Chicago.  Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain, a former Bishop of Joliet, Illinois, was in the running.

Chicago has been a bellwether American diocese.

It had a disastrous experience with John Cardinal Cody in the 1970s and early 1980s.  The reactionary Cody fought with his diocesan priests.  More than $1 million disappeared from the diocesan treasury.  Cody showered gifts on a woman who may or may not have been his mistress.

Cardinal Joseph Bernadin, Cody’s successor, was a deeply spiritual prelate, and an advocate of the social gospel who argued that life is a “seamless web” and should be protected and nurtured at all stages — not just in the womb.  He forgave and prayed with a man who fabricated charges of sexual abuse.

Cardinal George has reined in social activism in the big Chicago diocese.

Cupich has been on the path to clerical advancement since an early age.  He studied in Rome at the Pontifical North American University and the Pontifical Gregorian University.  He has a doctorate from the Catholic University of America.

He is credited with making strides to clean up the legal mess in Spokane.

Curiously, on the eve of his selection, a trial date was set for a multimillion-dollar lawsuit pitting the Diocese of Spokane against the law firm that it once trusted to get it through the 2004 bankruptcy.  Cupich initiated a malpractice complaint accusing the firm of using a failed strategy that cost the diocese millions of dollars and failed to prevent a new wave of sex abuse lawsuits.

Cupich is going from a diocese of 90,000 Catholics to a diocese of 2.3 million faithful.

He had previously been rumored a candidate in his native Omaha as well as Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and Seattle.

He will now be a high profile shaper of the American church under Pope Francis.