Hierarchy redux

No sooner do I update my gratuitous hierarchy post than Rocco over at Whispers drops a bombshell of a post on the much anticipated - and several times disappointed - Benedictine Curial re-shuffling. This scenario sketched out and well-documented has William Cardinal Levada, currently Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, returning to the U.S. to replace Edward Cardinal Egan as archbishop of the New York City.

Cardinal Egan barely turned 75 on April second. As I mentioned yesterday, as a member of the Sacred College, he does not become superannuated for five more years. Furthermore, because Cardinal Egan's tenure in the Big Apple has been rife with controversy, despite the fact that he has done much to put the archdiocese back on solid financial footings, which was a lot of work given the situation he inherited, the rapid acceptance of his resignation is desired by many. It must also be mentioned that the Holy Father does not want to appear to have had his hand forced, especially with regard to a metropolitan see as highly visible and significant as New York.

Up until this bombshell, the name most affiliated with New York as a potential future archbishop is current Milwaukee archbishop, Timothy Dolan, who, before returning home to St. Louis in 2001 as an auxiliary, served as Rector of Rome's North American College from 1994. Dolan's name has also surfaced as a potential successor to Cardinal Keeler in Baltimore, who is 76 and in poor enough health, especially after his car accident last year, that he reportedly wants to retire.