The Rev. Steven Avella, a Roman Catholic priest in Milwaukee, said his counterparts in the Archdiocese of New York should soon expect a phone call from their new boss -- Archbishop Timothy Dolan.

"He'll start phoning guys right away," said Avella, 57, a historian at Marquette University who served under Dolan during the archbishop's seven years atop the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. "He'll find out when their ordination anniversaries are, look after the older guys, go visit them. He's a guy who's close to his co-workers, who makes them feel they're worth something."

When Pope Benedict appointed Dolan, 59, as the new Archbishop of New York on Monday (Feb. 23), he placed a friendly face in the nation's most prestigious Catholic pulpit, elevating a Midwesterner known for his pastoral touch to the upper echelons of the church hierarchy.

With 2.5 million Catholics stretching from Manhattan to the Catskill Mountains, the Archdiocese of New York is the second largest in the U.S., and its leader becomes, as the late Pope John Paul II once said, "archbishop of the capital of the world."

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Filed under: * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Roman Catholic

1. stjohnsrector wrote: Bishop Dolan had quite a mess to clean up in Milwaukee.  Rembert Weakland brought the folk mass to American Roman Catholicism (he used a loophole to introduce it, against the Vatican’s objections - see Thomas Day’s book “Why Catholics can’t sing”) and led the charge in disassembling beautiful church sanctuaries, and the faith it stood for, in a what was a wonderful ethnic RC region.  I think in the 1990’s Nashotah House may have graduated more RC priests (converts) then his diocesan seminary (in my 3 years at the House Weakland had 1 or 2 ordinations, with no one in the coming years in the pipeline). A real traditionalist was just appointed Archbishop here in Detroit too, and he has quite a theological quagmire to clean up after Cardinals Deardon, Szoka, and Maida. February 24, 12:33 am | [comment link]

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