Hierarchy update

Today it was announced, as Rocco over at Whispers indicated last Friday, that the Holy Father has appointed Archbishop Timothy Paul Broglio, who is 55 years old and currently serves as apostolic nuncio to the Dominican Republic and apostolic delegate to Puerto Rico, as archbishop of the Military Archdiocese for the United States of America. His Excellency, Archbishop Broglio, succeeds Archbishop Edwin O'Brien who was named archbishop of Baltimore, the premiere see of the United States, earlier this year and installed on 1 October. Archbishop O'Brien succeeded Cardinal Keeler, who retired. Archbishop Broglio is a native of Cleveland, Ohio.

So, the episcopal picture for the Roman Catholic hierarchy (i.e., not including the Eastern Rite Catholics) in the United States shows that there are nine vacant dioceses: Charleston, South Carolina; Knoxville, Tennessee; Green Bay, Wisconsin; Des Moines, Iowa; St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands; Shreveport, Louisiana; Great Falls/Billings, Montana; Little Rock, Arkansas; New Ulm, Minnesota. The number of ordinaries serving beyond the mandatory retirement age of 75 is once again at ten, with Bishop D'Arcy of Ft. Wayne/South Bend having reached the age at which canon law requires bishops to submit their resignations since the last update. Archbishop Alfred Hughes of New Orleans turns 75 on 2 December. This number also includes Cardinals Maida and Egan of Detroit and New York respectively. Other ordinaries now serving beyond 75 are Bishops Leibrecht of Springfield/Cape Girardeau, MO; Mengeling of Lansing, MI; Yanta of Amarillo, TX, Murray of Kalamazoo, MI, Moynihan of Syracuse, NY, as well as Archbishops Lipscombe of Mobile, AL and Curtiss of Omaha, NE. According to my good friend from Philly, tomorrow the the Diocese of Great Falls/Billings will have a newly appointed bishop. If this prediction proves correct, tomorrow's appointment will create yet another vacancy- in Juneau, Alaska.

It is also time I give due credit to the absolutely wonderful resource Catholic Hierarchy. This is the resource for researching anything and everything having to do with hierarchy of the Church.

Another development since the last update, mentioned only briefly when it occurred, is the naming of Bishop Jaime Soto, who until today served as an auxiliary to Bishop Tod Brown in the Diocese of Orange in California, as co-adjutor (i.e., an auxiliary bishop who will succeed the ordinary when he retires) to Bishop William Weigand, who was the seventh bishop of our fair diocese, in the Diocese of Sacramento. His Mass of welcome is today in the beautifully renovated Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament.

In other news, the new-look Ironic Catholic reports on a strike called for among Catholic bloggers demanding "better working conditions and pay". The group calling for the work stoppage is known as "The Other CCC: Cantankerous Catholics Casuists."