Who is the USA's Top Churchman today?

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That title typically went to the Archbishop of NYC in the past, but I’m not so sure today? In addition to Timothy Cardinal Dolan, there’s the very influential Sean Cardinal O’Malley, Daniel Cardinal DiNardo and others. Archbishop Jose Gomez could be up there was well, but he seems to keep a fairly low profile as he repairs the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Who do you think is the US’s top churchman today?
 
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Define “Top”.

Most popular? That depends on the audience.

Most well-known?

Most influential on Catholics?

Most influential on the secular world?

Cardinal Dolan is the president of the USCCB, as said above.

The Papal Nuncio to the USA is Archbishop Christophe Pierre.
 
Potentially I suppose you could cite any of the American cardinals. They all have influence and are considered spokespeople for the Church. James Martin is such a popular author that he could be considered influential. A few years ago when the Affordable Care Act was in the news I would have cited Sr. Carol Keehan. I think it may be a matter of what’s in the news cycle at any given time.
 
Neither James Martin nor Sr. Carol Keehan have spent a single moment as the US’s top churchman. That much is for certain.
 
I wonder why this thread was moved to “Traditional Catholicism”? Bad match. Exercising a bit of control I suppose.
 
The Archbishop of Baltimore traditionally held primacy of honour among the US Bishops. Of course, cardinals outrank national primates, and Baltimore was never formally granted the title Primate, so that throws a wrench into the equation. Regardless, Baltimore is first among the metropolitan sees of the United States.
 
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If by top Churchman you mean high ranking / Papabile, I would nominate my very own Metropolitan, His Eminence Sean Cardinal O’Malley, Metropolitan of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston.

If you mean most influential and recognizable, I’m inclined to say His Excellency Bishop Robert Barron, Auxillary Bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

And piggy backing on @twf from a Traditional Roman Catholic perspective, the Archdiocese of Baltimore is the pre-eminent episcopal See and enjoys the “prerogative of place” in the USA, so that would mean His Excellency Archbishop William E. Lori would take the cake here.

The Churchman in the United States with the most political power and therefore most temporal power would be the President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), which is currently His Eminence Daniel Cardinal DiNardo.

The Churchman with the most number of souls directly under his jurisdiction would be His Excellency Archbishop Jose Gomez, the Ordinary for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, who has over 5,000,000 souls that he is responsible for.

Finally as mentioned previously, His Eminence Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York could certainly be considered the top US Churchman as well, he is highly influential and holds tremendous power temporally and spiritually.

So any of the following could be candidate for top US Churchman - maybe start a poll asking people to vote who they feel is the #1?

Archbishop William E. Lori, Archbishop of the Baltimore Archdiocese

Sean Cardinal O’Malley, Archbishop of the Boston Archdiocese

Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of the New York Archdiocese

Archbishop Jose Gomez, Archbishop of the Los Angeles Archdiocese

Bishop Robert Barron, Auxillary Bishop of the Los Angeles Archdiocese

Daniel Cardinal DiNardo, President of the USCCB

I would say the top US Catholic Churchmen is definitely one of these men.

IMO, I would give the title to either Cardinal DiNardo, Cardinal O’Malley, or Cardinal Dolan - I’m not sure which one, though I’m inclinced to lean towards Cardinal DiNardo.
 
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And yet none of these leaders seem to have any credence or voice within the current political administration. That belongs, it seems, to 45’s Advisory Counsel, and Robert Jeffress in particular. Perhaps throw Franklin Graham in the mix. These Church leaders have very little respect for your Cardinals and Archbishops. Does it matter to your members, do you think?
 
He had Dolan front and center at his inauguration. Other than something like that where the point is to pray, the Catholic church hierarchy should not be visibly involved in politics in my opinion. (I can’t speak for what they might be doing covertly.) In the past, people like Cardinal Spellman were WAY too political and it was not good for the Church.

Anyway, neither Trump or Pence is a Catholic so people like Jeffress and the Prosperity Gospel preachers are what I’d expect them to have hanging around.
 
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