By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country
I've filed a story for usnews.com—to be posted shortly—on just-named New York Roman Catholic Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan and why the choice will send ripples through American Catholicism far beyond the confines of the New York archdiocese. Now for the political ramifications:
1. Making his highest-profile U.S. appointment since his 2005 election, Pope Benedict XVI chose a conservative who is likely to stress the church's stand on social issues like abortion. Other choices for the post, including Atlanta Archbishop Wilton Gregory, would have focused more on the church's social justice positions, including alleviating poverty, promoting humane immigration policies, and opposing war.
2. The pope wanted a conservative for the post but not a strident right-wing advocate. National Catholic Reporter senior correspondent John Allen tells me that Dolan hails from the American church's center-right flank, not the hard right. Hard-right bishops, including Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput, make headlines by denying communion to politicians or parishioners who support abortion rights. The difference is mostly one of style.
3. Despite the new archbishop's less confrontational style toward political leaders, he is more likely to use the national bully pulpit that the Big Apple offers than did his predecessor, outgoing New York Archbishop Edgar Egan. "Egan had such a low profile that he was criticized for it by the left and the right," says David Gibson, author of The Rule of Benedict: Pope Benedict XVI and His Battle W ith the Modern World . "They both want someone who is much more visible."
4. There may be a tendency to read too much political motivation into the appointment of a firm conservative in the age of Barack Obama. National Catholic Reporter's Allen warns against it. "The Vatican is the classic example of an institution that thinks in terms of centuries," he says.
From my usnews.com piece, here's an explanation about why New York's new archbishop matters so much for American Roman Catholicism:
Though there are more Catholics in other archdioceses, like Los Angeles, and though the church is growing much faster in the South and Southwest, New York's archbishop has long held a unique position in American Catholicism.
"The Archbishop of New York is the closest thing we have to an American pope," says John Allen, senior correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter . "In some ways, he plays the role of leading the American Catholic Church."
...Dolan's choice carries so much weight for the future of the wider American church largely because of New York's position as the nation's capital for media and culture. When Pope John Paul II met then New York Archbishop John O'Connor in 1983, the pope called him "archbishop of the capital of the world," a reference to Rome, which once held that title. In an interview, Whispers in the Loggia blogger Rocco Palmo noted that as far back as 1875, the Vatican picked New York's archbishop to be the first American cardinal, snubbing Baltimore, the church's first U.S. diocese.
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