Big changes afoot among CA bishops

From 

http://www.calcatholic.com

With death of Bishop Steinbock, prominent Catholic blogger predicts ‘coming earthquake’ in California episcopate

The death of Fresno Bishop John Steinbock “only enhances the imminence of what the SoCal church-crowd has long viewed as its coming ‘Earthquake,’” reports Rocco Palmo, a Catholic blogger who operates the well-respected website “Whispers in the Loggia.” 

“Archbishop José Gomez might already be six months into his preparation to take over the heavy reins of LA -- where he'll formally accede to lead the largest flock American Catholicism has ever known at February's end,” writes Palmo. “At the same time, though, the bulk of California's junior and, by far, larger province (home to two-thirds of the state's 12 million Catholics) is quickly nearing its Roman close-up as three of Los Angeles' five suffragan churches prepare to receive new heads within the next two years.” 

Palmo continues, “Beyond Fresno, Bishop Tod Brown of Orange -- itself a million-plus Catholic hub -- reaches the retirement age of 75 next November... and even though Bishop Robert Brom of San Diego is just 72, credible indications remain that, amid the fallout of the southernmost see's particularly rough bankruptcy, filed in tandem with 2007's mammoth $198 million sex-abuse settlement (the second-largest payout by an American diocese), the million-member church in the nation's eighth-largest city will see the appointment of a coadjutor at some point in the New Year.” 

With regard to the Archdiocese of San Francisco, Palmo writes, “Further North, meanwhile, the genteel, but oft-besieged Archbishop George Niederauer of San Francisco is another of the seven Stateside ordinaries who'll turn 75 in 2011. Then again, no one should expect the onetime English professor to depart the stage too quickly.” 

“Despite the well-enforced Roman practice that an ordinary approaching retirement age is never to be given further episcopal assistance (that is, unless it succeeds him), these days' unique ‘Camarillo indult’ at the Vatican was again invoked in early July, as 56 year-old Msgr Robert McElroy -- a Harvard alum, Stanford PhD, Greg-trained theologian, former priest-secretary to Archbishop John Quinn and vicar-general to the now-Cardinal William Levada -- was given the high-hat as the 17th auxiliary of ‘The City,’ and ordained in September at a Mass presided over by the CDF prefect,” writes Palmo. 

Of Auxiliary Bishop McElroy Palmo writes, “(On a side-note, the new bishop's well-publicized stances prior to his appointment on, among other things, an enhanced enforcement of Canon 915 sparked something of a heated reaction from the Catholic right; a scholar of John Courtney Murray, McElroy took Dignitatis humanae -- the title of the Vatican II declaration on religious freedom which the Jesuit theologian helped draft -- as his episcopal motto.)” 

“Bottom line: to date, B16 has named the heads of five of the 12 dioceses of the nation's largest state, so the coming moves will put the reigning pontiff well over the top. Still, as the plate-shift emerges, with a rising archbishop likely wont to make some tweaks to his top team -- and, above all, two native Angelenos holding seats at the ‘Thursday Table’ of the Congregation for Bishops -- a certain Million-Dollar Question ultimately begs itself: Will the LA auxiliaries finally get un-‘parked’? concludes Palmo. 

Palmo has become a prominent figure in the Catholic blogosphere since he began “Whispers in the Loggia” in 2004. He is a former US correspondent for the London-based international Catholic weekly The Tablet, and has served as a church analyst for The New York Times, Associated Press, BBC, NBC, National Public Radio, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, “and a host of other print and broadcast outlets worldwide,” according to his website biography. 

To visit “Whispers in the Loggia,” Click Here.

 

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