UNITED STATES
National Catholic Register
by Jeanette DeMelo Monday, November 11, 2013
This week on Register Radio I talked to Whispers in the Loggia blogger Rocco Palmo about Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s time as president of the United States bishops’ conference, which comes to an end Nov. 12. (Read Joan Desmond’s piece: Evaluating Cardinal Dolan’s Tenure)
In 2010, Dolan’s election to the presidency of the bishops’ conference came as quite a surprise. Rocco explained “since 1966 the foundation of the conference it was almost automatic that the vice president of the conference would be elected the next president.”
Yet, in the last election, the bishops changed course. Rather than electing the incumbent vice president Archbishop Gerald Kicanas, the bishops chose then-Archbishop Dolan. Rocco suggested one reason for the change was Dolan’s popularity with younger bishops who had developed great relationships with him during his time as rector of the North American College in Rome. They saw him as a “guru priest,” said the Church blogger.
Another historic aspect of Dolan’s election, Rocco noted, is that it was the first time the archbishop of New York was elected president of the conference. Again, the Church Whisper (as Rocco is sometimes called) suggested a reason for this: the New York post is already considered prominent in the Church world and bishops of the past didn’t want to give the premier U.S. see more influence than it already had.
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