Hierarchy update

Moving quickly to fill the vacancy created when His Excellency, Allen Vigeron, was named archbishop of Detroit, the Holy Father announced this morning that Bishop Salvatore Joseph Cordileone, who is currently serving as auxilary bishop in San Diego, is the new bishop of Oakland, California, filling the only vacancy in the archdiocese of which our diocese is a suffragan.

Bishop Cordileone is 52 years-old and a canon lawyer by training. In addition to English, he speaks Latin, Spanish, and Italian. Bishop Cordileone's appointment to Oakland is the seventh U.S. appointment this year. If credible sources are to be believed (i.e., Rocco over at Whispers), the Holy Father will be naming a new archbishop for St. Louis in the very near future.

With this appointment there are now five vacant sees in the U.S.: Cheyenne, Wyoming; Duluth, Minnesota; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Owensboro, Kentucky; St. Louis, Missouri.

The number of Latin rite bishops currently serving beyond the mandatory retirement age (i.e., bishops whose resignations the Holy Father has not accepted) is now twelve.

Archbishops Hughes of New Orleans; Curtiss of Omaha, NE; Brunett of Seattle, WA.

Bishops: D'Arcy of Ft. Wayne/South Bend, IN; Murray of Kalamazoo, MI; Moynihan of Syracuse, NY; Tafoya of Pueblo, CO; Cullen of Allentown, PA: Higi of Lafayette in Indiana, Carmody of Corpus Christi, TX. Peña of Brownsville, TX, Skylstad of Spokane.

While I am on matters ecclesiastical, with the institution of four new monsignori in our diocese last week, my brother deacon, Greg Kandra, who writes The Deacon's Bench, drew my attention to a post on McNamara's Blog on the first priest from the U.S. to be named a monsignor, Robert Seton, who was the grandson of the first U.S.-born saint, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton.