Archbishop Thomas Kelly (pic'd alongside) plans to submit his resignation as required today, his 75th birthday.That will formally launch the search for a new spiritual leader for 200,000 Catholics in the Archdiocese of Louisville.
The Vatican seldom accepts resignations immediately, however.
Kelly has said he might serve another 18 months before Pope Benedict XVI appoints his replacement.
Still, the offer of resignation marks the beginning of the end of his tenure, which began in 1982.
"The appointment could come sooner and could take a bit longer, though most appointments now are occurring within this 18-month time frame," Kelly wrote last month in his column in the Record, the archdiocesan newspaper.
The Vatican requires all bishops who lead dioceses to submit their resignations at 75.
A pope can keep bishops on the job indefinitely, but they are often replaced within a couple years of turning 75, said Sister Mary Ann Walsh, spokeswoman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Kelly's tenure has been marked by praise for promoting lay ministry and interfaith ties -- but criticism for allowing priests to remain in ministry after learning they had sexually abused minors. Kelly presided over the payment of nearly $30 million in settlements and legal and medical bills, forcing a sharp cutback in the archdiocese's staff and budget.
He faced some calls for an early resignation three years ago, when the abuse crisis was at its peak. Kelly said he was staying to resolve the crisis rather than leave it to a successor, and because he said the Vatican seldom accepts early resignations offered under public pressure.
Kelly was away this week and unavailable for comment, spokeswoman Cecelia Price said.
In The Record, Kelly wrote: "I hope you don't mind waiting. Until the arrival of the next Archbishop, I hope you can put up with me, long in the tooth but a shepherd who loves his priests and people and who will continue to do his best to serve them."
Local Catholics say they're bracing for the transition.
"Whenever there's change there's also apprehension," said the Rev. Tony Smith, president of the Priests' Council of the archdiocese.
He said Kelly has "been a wonderful bishop, giving great guidance in pastoral care. In that sense, there's apprehension about any new bishop coming in -- will he follow in that same pastoral mode?"
He said Kelly is "always wanting to work with his priests rather than simply seeing priests as instruments he can utilize."
William Hardin, a lay minister at Christ the King Church in western Louisville, agreed.
He said Kelly has "been a blessing to this archdiocese" despite such things as his public battle with substance abuse, for which he received treatment in the 1990s.
Hardin credited Kelly for such things as his promotion of multicultural ministries and his use of lay ministers to help ease the workload of a shrinking number of priests.
The Rev. Thomas Reese, author of multiple books on the Catholic hierarchy, said Louisville's next archbishop likely would be someone serving as bishop of a smaller diocese or as auxiliary (assistant) bishop in a larger one.
That's because Louisville is an archdiocese, or center of a province consisting of all dioceses in Kentucky and Tennessee.
That means the new archbishop likely will be from somewhere else, because Louisville no longer has any auxiliary bishops and it's unlikely for a priest to be promoted directly to archbishop.
Reese, a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center in Washington, said church watchers "have been trying to read the tea leaves and understand what are the differences between the appointments made by Benedict and by (the late) John Paul."
He said trends in bishops have changed over decades. Executive-like bishops presided over building booms in the 1950s, followed by appointees under Pope Paul VI in the 1960s and 1970s, who tended to follow the reformist tone of the Second Vatican Council.
"Under Paul VI there was a great effort to look for pastoral bishops, bishops who were good at working with their people and … their priests," Reese said. He said Kelly was a carryover from that style, even though he became a bishop in the early years of Pope John Paul II.
Mostly under John Paul II, "the real priority was to find bishops who were loyal to the Vatican" in the face of dissent over issues such as the church's prohibition on artificial birth control.
"The result has been a much more conservative hierarchy in the United States," he said.
He said two American archbishops appointed by Benedict -- San Francisco's George Niederauer and Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C. -- are known more as pastors than as doctrinal hawks.
"Wuerl is no liberal, but he's a very pastoral, sensitive and intelligent bishop, and he doesn't want to play cop or look for a fight," Reese said.
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