By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
The Vatican has announced that it will accept the resignation of New York’s Cardinal Edward M. Egan, 76, and has appointed Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan, 59, as his successor.
“I’ve known him for many years, and I told him how delighted I am to welcome this wonderful priest and bishop,” Cardinal Egan told parishioners at the 8:00 a.m. Mass in St. Patrick’s Cathedral this Sunday while Archbishop Dolan stood nearby. “He came to New York to be installed, to strengthen our faith and to lead us in our search for justice, compassion and peace.”
Archbishop Dolan, who just turned 59 on Feb. 6, will assume the highest-profile position in the U.S. Catholic Church, leading a flock of 2.5million Catholics in three boroughs and seven counties of New York City.
People familiar with Dolan say he’s very much like the late John Cardinal O’Connor in that he is a charismatic clergyman who is not afraid to confront controversial issues. He is known to work 16 hour days, launched a successful capital campaign in 2007 to save struggling Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and spoke out publicly against pedophile priests, publishing the names of 43 clergymen who were found to be abusers.
Archbishop Dolan was born the oldest of five children in an Irish-Catholic family in St. Louis, Missouri. He studied for the priesthood in Rome and was ordained in 1976. He served as rector of the North American College in Rome Archbishop from 1994 to 2001 and also worked for five years on the staff of the apostolic nunciature in Washington, D.C. He served as auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of St. Louis for one year before Pope John Paul II appointed him bishop of Milwaukee in 2002.
Cardinal Egan will turn 77 on April 2 and is retiring after serving nine years as Archbishop of New York.
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