New Archbp. of Westminster tomorrow?

Paolo Rodari mentions that the name of the successor of Cormac Card. Murphy-O’Connor to the See of Westminster may be announced tomorrow.

Tutto potrebbe risolversi addirittura questa settimana. O meglio domani, il giorno in cui Benedetto XVI dovrebbe annunciare, dopo settimane di previsioni più o meno verosimili, il nome del successore di Cormac Murphy-O’Connor alla guida dell’arcidiocesi di Westminster.

Rodari mentions some of the rumors about the man to be appointed, including a parish priest of a London parish, whose name is "top secret".

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35 Comments

  1. The Daily Mail (for what it is worth) says the front-runner is the Dominican Provincial of England . . .

  2. Andrew, UK and sometimes Canada says:

    Also reports, based on Gordon Brown’s recent visit, that the Bishop of Paisley may be in the running.

  3. joe says:

    I’m hoping it’s Fr. Finigan.

  4. Paul M says:

    I do hope that whoever is named is less the “managerial” type and more of a true pastor – someone who will engage the culture and articulate Catholic teaching. Get a strong manager as a #2 (however the structure is). We need bishops as leaders, not managers. Fr. Blake nails it with this quote, someone who is committed to “radical orthodoxy” and thinking with the Church, who is capable of understanding the Church in terms of “mission” rather than “maintenance”

    The “maintenance” mentality, which I consider similar to the “managerial” mentality, hasn’t gotten us very far.

  5. Prof. Basto says:

    “…a una parte un parroco di Londra il cui nome è top secret anche se, si dice, sia un sacerdote con parecchio seguito, molto stimato dai fedeli.”

  6. Would it not be a wonderful thing to see the sort of man who would also relect the attitude Pope Benedict expressed about being a pastor in his letter to the world’s bishops about the SSPX?

  7. Prof. Basto says:

    Not having access to the bulletin of the Holy See Press Office under embargo, Father, we, unlike Yourself, have no idea yet about the contents of the Holy Father’s epistle.

    But I sure second your tought.

  8. Ottaviani says:

    Westminster needs another Siri! That’s the sort of person who will sort out the mess!

  9. Tecumseh says:

    Frs Burke, Finigan or any of the Faith Group is exactly what we need.

  10. Chironomo says:

    Hmmm..

    Making this appointment public on the same day as the letter to the Bishops concerning the SSPX… that’s a lot for one day! BTW… if the name is so “Top Secret”, how do we know he’s a parish priest from London???

  11. Christabel says:

    Please, please pray for us here in England. Time is short and the water rises.

  12. Henry Edwards says:

    Google translation:

    “In the first option, the apostolic nuncio in England Bishop Faustino Sainz Munoz, the fact of supporting the ideas of Murphy-O’Connor, would have added – in addition to the name of Vincent Nichols – including that of Peter Smith (archbishop of Cardiff), Malcolm McMahon (Archbishop of Nottingham) and the auxiliary London Bernard Longley.”

    “In the second, however, there are the names of many outsiders. Among them, two attractive hypotheses. On the one hand, a parish priest in London whose name is top secret though, they say, is a priest with a lot later, highly respected by the faithful. The other the Benedictine abbot of Downside, Aidan Bellenger.”

    Hmm … What London parish priest, highly respected by the faithful, has been in the news lately?

  13. A Random Friar says:

    If it’s the current English provincial of the OP’s, I believe that would be splendid for the Church, and one beaut of a cross for him.

  14. PMcGrath says:

    You realize, of course, that if it is Our Favourite London-Area Parish Priest, that will be one heck of a B16 smackdown of a certain British Catholic periodical that we all know and love ….

  15. prof basto says:

    parecchio seguito means, in the context, a considerable following.

  16. Dan P. says:

    Do ya mean pastoral in the Cardinal Mahoney sense? Ha ha.

  17. Justin says:

    If it is a London parish priest – they are most probably hinting at Fr Alexander Sherbrooke, parish priest of St Patrick’s Soho Square. Really excellent priest who’s spoken at length about radical orthodoxy – well loved by Londoners especially the young. Organizes the annual Corpus Christi procession around the West End and Soho, and facilitator for the SPES. And though it shouldn’t matter he’s got impeccable establishment credentials – recusant mother, Old Etonian, Edinburgh graduate, English College.

  18. Andrew, UK and sometimes Canada says:

    As great as it would be to have a certain London priest, we should never wish a bishopric on him. The good priests run screaming at the idea of “promotion”.

  19. Damian Thompson says:

    Well, I think it’s fair to say it won’t be Fr Finigan. Remember that he’s too young for the job. But the time is coming when a nuncio will have to put his name on a terna. There’s genuine, and justified, indignation that a priest of his talents, who is conservative but not at all extreme, remains in a fairly small parish while some truly mediocre men are promoted. Fr Finigan’s popularity is no accident! And the wicked hatchet job by the Tablet has only added to it.

  20. Emilio III says:

    “The expense is reckoned, the enterprise is begun; it is of God; it cannot be withstood. So the faith was planted: So it must be restored.”

  21. Tom says:

    “Frs Burke, Finigan or any of the Faith Group is exactly what we need”.

    Yes, we certainly need them, and they would be welcomed by solid Catholics, loyal to the Church and the Holy Father. But it’s a pipe-dream. Fr Burke is Scottish and, like the hypothesis of the Bishop of Paisley (who’s much more likely to succeed Arch. Conti in Glasgow), such a move just won’t happen. Besides, he’s too young – as is the case with the great Fr Finigan as Damien Thompson indicates.

    Please God it is someone not a member of the current bishops’ conference. We need a break and a step-change in leadership and authority. But we need more than one sound appointment to facilitate that step-change – the A of W cannot do it alone. Hopefully the Holy Spirit is being allowed to influence the Holy Father.

    Given the courage the Holy Father is displaying if the contents of the leaked letter are to be believed, one hopes that he shows similar courage in making this appointment.

  22. B Knotts says:

    It may mean nothing, but it is interesting to note that Cardinal Pell, described as the “king-maker” in a blog post referred to above, was recently in…a certain parish.

  23. B Knotts says:

    I misspoke…I mean that Cardinal Pell was recently assisted by a certain priest.

  24. Richard says:

    B Knotts is right on both counts.

    Yes, Cardinal Pell was recently assisted by His Hermeneuticness:
    http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3584/3333175357_c5e4cc754a.jpg

    But also Cardinal Pell stayed with Fr Alexander Sherbrooke at his London parish just last November:
    http://www.stpatricksoho.org/parish/News/quarterly/qdecember2005.pdf

    It looks like His Eminence has been taking a keen interest recently in several of England’s more interesting priests. Thank God for his concern.

  25. Joe says:

    Well, I am not sure of his exact location at this moment, but perhaps a recently “semi-retired” traditional bishop might be getting a phone call. What a shakedown the archdiocese would be in for if that would happen.

    Joe

  26. tertullian says:

    Monsignor James Curry

  27. Thomas says:

    “Well, I am not sure of his exact location at this moment, but perhaps a recently ‘semi-retired’ traditional bishop might be getting a phone call. What a shakedown the archdiocese would be in for if that would happen.”

    If I knew how to post those little yellow faces, I’d post the one with its eyes rolling.

  28. RBrown says:

    The Daily Mail (for what it is worth) says the front-runner is the Dominican Provincial of England . . .
    Comment by Fr. Augustine Thompson O.P.

    If he’s the man, then Fr Aidan Nichols op–a Ratzinger friend–was consulted. As a matter of fact, he was probably consulted no matter who the new man is.

  29. Michael UK says:

    I do not care who it is, as long as he is a real Catholic and not a CofE/Protestant manque!

  30. Calleva says:

    Plot now thickens because Rodari is hedging his bets and saying it could be Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Birmingham, who has just defended the hosting of a celebration of Mohammed’s birthday at a Catholic college. Information about the latter is scant – some people are reporting a service in the chapel (where presumably the Blessed Sacrament reposes) and others that it was just a discussion group for better interfaith understanding. ++Vin has been the one tipped all along by the establishment and would certainly have been on one of the two ternae allegedly turned down by HH. So a change of heart? I hope that Benedict XVI will make an imaginitive choice…

  31. As I understand the timing in Damien Thompson’s latest post — if indeed I do — a usually well-informed Italian journalist said last night that the Pope was leaning toward Bp. Nichols, but this morning the same journalist reported that aux. Bp. Bernard Longley (regarded as a friend of the TLM) will be named.

  32. davie gemmels love child says:

    Hey, Tecumseh, keep your hands off Fr Patrick Burke. he will be needed to sort out the utter shambles that is St Andrews and Edinburgh when we get rid of the ghastly O’Brien in four years time!

  33. irishgirl says:

    Ooooo, the plot thickens…..

    I’d love to see Fr. Finigan get it!

    Of course, I’m prejudiced…he has the same last name as me, but spelled different!

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