July 2012

“Depending on how one looks at things, this Friday morning brings either the most courageously bold — or stunningly brazen — American appointment in the seven-year reign of Pope Benedict XVI.

“For the better part of the last four months, the machinery of the archdiocese that — at least, under normal circumstances — many US bishops consider the nation’s most daunting assignment has quietly prepared its 450,000 members for a transition at the top. Yet while the pontiff’s selection of the ninth archbishop of San Francisco had almost universally been expected by late June, an apparent delay was explained by credible reports of a backroom Roman “fight” over the state and direction of the famously progressive local church.

“Now, finally, the dust has cleared… and even for a city well-accustomed to seismic activity, the ecclesial Richter Scale both by the Bay and well beyond is about to record a right whopper.

“A “major announcement on the future of the archdiocese” already set for 10am local time at St Mary’s Cathedral, at Roman Noon the pontiff named Bishop Salvatore Cordileone, 56 — the San Diego-born head of the neighboring Oakland church since 2009, and chairman of the US bishops’ efforts to defend the traditional definition of marriage — to succeed Archbishop George Niederauer, who reached the retirement age of 75 in June 2011……..”

For the whole article, read HERE.

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