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In May 2005, a month after his election, Pope Benedict XVI transferred Archbishop William Levada from San Francisco to the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.Benedict chose Levada, now a cardinal, to fill the position he was vacating as head of the Catholic Church's orthodoxy office.
Seven months later, Benedict appointed Levada's good friend, Archbishop George Niederauer, to succeed Levada in San Francisco.
In June, former St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke joined Levada as one of the highest-ranking Americans working in the Vatican. And like Levada, Burke's recommendation for his successor in St. Louis will hold a lot of weight with Benedict.
Vatican watchers have suggested recently that St. Louis Catholics might hear from Benedict sooner rather than later — as in days or weeks, not months — about their next archbishop.
The Vatican all but closes down in December and Benedict wants to put some key bishops in place before the end of the year, according to sources.
The search for the new leader of a diocese is both prescribed and secretive. Few people know all the pieces of the puzzle during the meticulous process, and anyone who does is bound by an oath of silence called a "papal secret."
St. Louis is one of eight dioceses — and the only archdiocese — currently without a bishop in the U.S. church.
(The others are Biloxi, Miss.; Charleston, S.C.; Cheyenne, Wyo.; Duluth, Minn.; Gallup, N.M.; Juneau, Alaska, and Knoxville, Tenn.)
And Benedict has about 125 vacancies around the world he needs to fill, including 11 archdioceses.
While some Vatican watchers contend Burke has a tremendous amount of influence in Benedict's decision, others say Archbishop Pietro Sambi, the Vatican's top diplomat in the U.S. — called the apostolic nuncio — who shepherds the selection process along and is often called the gatekeeper of the selection process, will hold sway.
In his three years as Benedict's man in America, Sambi has leaned toward bishops liberal Catholics would call "more pastoral." (The appointments of centrists like Archbishop Donald Wuerl in Washington and Niederauer are examples.) Conservative Catholics say bishops like Burke adhere to church teaching and are therefore truly pastoral.
Following are some of the names that have been floated as candidates to become the ninth archbishop of St. Louis:
Archbishop Joseph Naumann, 59, of Kansas City, Kan. Naumann, who was ordained in St. Louis, was rumored to be the first choice of former St. Louis Archbishop Justin Rigali to succeed him when Rigali was named archbishop of Philadelphia in 2003. As a member of the Vatican's Congregation for Bishops, Rigali, who is now a cardinal, will have a lot of influence in the process. In May (after reportedly counseling her multiple times on the issue), Naumann wrote a public letter asking Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a Catholic and abortion-rights supporter, not to receive Holy Communion.
Bishop Robert Finn, 55, of Kansas City, another vocal abortion opponent and St. Louis native. Other St. Louis natives whose names have come up include Bishop John Gaydos, 65, of Jefferson City, and Bishop George Lucas, 59, of Springfield, Ill.
Bishop Thomas Paprocki, 56, auxiliary bishop of Chicago. He is a canon lawyer (who, in fact, defeated Burke in a 2007 election among U.S. bishops to chair their conference's canon law committee) and former chancellor of the Chicago Archdiocese. He is Cardinal George's liaison for health and hospital affairs and at last week's bishops' meeting in Baltimore warned that Catholic health care facilities would have to close their doors if a new federal law passed that forced health care workers to perform abortions. Paprocki is also on the boards of the Polish American Association and the Polish American Leadership Initiative, which would give him an interesting perspective on the ongoing battle between the archdiocese and St. Stanislaus Kostka Church.
Bishop Salvatore Matano, 62, of Burlington, Vt. He is a Rhode Island native and a former classmate of Burke's — the two studied together in Rome in the early 1980s and are friends. Public speculation about Matano began last month, after an influential and well-sourced Catholic blog, "Whispers in the Loggia," floated his name.
Other bishops who have a connection to Burke and whose names have been bandied about as possible successors:
Bishop Kevin Vann, 57, of Fort Worth, Texas. He was born and ordained in Springfield, Ill. Burke took part in his consecration as bishop. He's only been in Fort Worth for three years.
Bishop Michael Cote, 59, of Norwich, Conn. He also was co-consecrated by Burke, but is not a Midwesterner and may be in line to take over the Hartford Archdiocese.
Bishop Peter Jugis, 51, of Charlotte, N.C. — singled out by Burke in a recent interview with an Italian newspaper as having a similar position to the archbishop on Catholic politicians who support abortion rights.
If there really are two ways Pope Benedict could go on the selection — either with Burke or with Sambi — then the bishops Sambi might promote could include:
Bishop Terry Steib, 68, of Memphis, Tenn. He's possibly too old to get the nod, but if he did, he would be St. Louis' first African-American bishop, something that Sambi reportedly would like to see more of. Before the presidential election, during which several bishops told Catholics abortion should be the pre-eminent issue they take into account when voting, Steib took a different position, saying "we cannot be a one-issue people." Steib also gets high marks for packing potential priests into his seminary in unprecedented numbers.
Bishop Gerald Kicanas, 67, of Tucson, Ariz. A native of Chicago, Kicanas is the vice president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which means he is in line to succeed Cardinal George as president — a time-consuming job — in two years. Kicanas' history as rector of the graduate-level seminary in Chicago would give him a good perspective on the scheduled $65 million expansion of Kenrick-Glennon Seminary.
Bishop Blase Cupich, 59, of Rapid City, S.D. At the bishops' meeting last week, he took a more diplomatic stand than some on the issue of Catholic politicians who support abortion rights. A native of Omaha, Neb., Cupich may be in line to take over the archdiocese of his hometown when Omaha's Catholic leader, Archbishop Elden Curtiss, 76, retires. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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(Source: STLT)