USCCB Avoids Complete Meltdown, For Now

The Good News: The USCCB elected Archbishop Timothy Dolan as it's next President.

The Bad News: It took 3 ballots for him to beat Rainbow Coalition endorsed Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas. 3 ballots I can understand, but that it was Kicanas he was in the run off against? & that even then, Kicanas got 111 votes, does not look good. 10 votes the other way & Kicanas would have won the day. What it says to me is that 111 Bishops approve of how he handled the ordination of a child molester as well as approve of the Rainbow Coalition as a viable Catholic organization. What it also says is that we still have a huge number of Bishops who are not teaching or upholding the Catholic faith as they should.

There were a couple of disappointments in the vote for VP & General Secretary.

1st of all, I would have been very happy had Archbishop Chaput been elected VP. He was at the top of my list. But from what I see Archbishop Kurtz has some strong positives as well.

2nd disappointment, that Msgr. David Kagan, vicar general of the Diocese of Rockford, IL didn't get the General Secretary post. OK, I will admit a bit of prejudice in this case. Rockford is the Illinois diocese across the river from me & I am very familiar with how Bishop Doran runs things. & that means Mnsr. Kagan has to be on pretty much the same page. & that meant he would have done things a lot differently in the day to day running of the USCCB.

As I am not familiar with the winner, I am adopting a wait & see attitude, but I suspect he won't be a business as usual secretary like current general secretary is. Why do I say that?

The current general secretary, Msgr. David Malloy, was ordained in 1983 as a priest for the Milwaukee Archdiocese under Weakland. That fact alone doesn't disqualify him. But he was there in what was basicly the Weakland Sklba era of major dissent to authentic Catholic doctrine & I doubt that anyone who was too solidly orthodox would have gotten too far in the diocese, let alone get on the radar for general secretary.

I do think the general secretary-elect, Msgr. Ronny Jenkins, will be more in line with the direction the new leadership will try & take things. But, it won't be easy given the fact that the majority of those at the USCCB are a lot more left leaning than the new leadership.

Anyway, while I won't use the word seismic, the election results do show a shift in the right (as in correct) direction. But time will tell how much of a shift.

& yes, given that this is the 1st time a sitting VP who was willing to run wasn't elected, it is historic. & for those who don't like the change, for them it will be seismic.

For additional coverage check the following out:

New Catholic Bishops President Chided Biden, Pelosi on Abortion

'Seismic shift' as Archbishop Dolan wins upset election as head of U.S. bishops

Blogs:

Archbishop Dolan Elected USCCB President

The Big … um… News

More Notre Dame backlash: USCCB rejects Obama enabler as president (Jill Stanek who isn't Catholic has an interesting take as an outsider)

Shock & Awe: Archbishop Dolan elected President of USCCB! {Updated}

Congratulations to Abp. Dolan!

These 3 from Whispers in the Logia: Notes on a "Timquake"
The Winners' Circle
In Bishops' Shocker, TIM WINS!

CNA/EWTNews:

Church analyst: Election of Archbishop Dolan signals desire for strong leader
Archbishop Timothy Dolan named as president of US bishops' conference

Added @ 9:50pm Just came across the NYTimes piece: Dolan Chosen as President of U.S. Bishops’ Group. Given how far to the left they lean there & their hatred of authentic Catholicism You can be sure the piece's srong emphasis on what it calls the "conservative direction" that is being taken isn't meant to be seen as a positive. You can see in in how they handled the comment by Prof. Robert P. George. George commented that the USCCB could have gone another way. He said the Bishops could have thought: ‘This guy is too combative. We need someone more conciliatory." He went on to say "They didn’t do that.” I want to make it clear that Prof. George wasn't calling the decision wrong, But I suspect the NYTimes was trying to use him to say it for themselves. The NYTimes wishes they had thought that & voted for Kicanas who is more in line with their agenda.

Prof. George has worked with Archbishop Dolan & helped draft the Manhatten Declaration that Dolan was an original signer of. So I am willing to be the original context of his comment was how they came to the right decision & how they could have gone the wrong way instead.

& of course the NYTimes has to make it clear that it was us conservatives who were "lobbying' against Kicanas. The article itself may not have been as slanted as some but you can be sure the comments section is full of attacks. There are some pro-Dolan. & 1 person calls the NY Times out by showing how different the article would have been had Kicanas won: "Is there any doubt that had the final vote gone the other way Ms. Goodstein would have instead written: "The bishops passed over the affable reformer Timothy Dolan in favor of a Bishop tainted by the ongoing sexual abuse scandal in the Church..." No Dolan the conservative & attacking Kicanas, not because they disagree but because theyc an slam the Church as a whole.

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Is it just me or does the above picture of Archbishop Dolan look like he is trying to use the Force to get his fellow Bishops to uphild orthodox Catholic Doctrine?

"You will suppot Pope Benedict!"

"You will welcome the New Translation of the Liturgy!
"You will oppose all Catholicans who support abortion!"

Fill in your own.