Who will be my next bishop?

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In my Diocese of Monterey California, my bishop (Bp. Sylvester Ryan) will be turning 75 (retirement age) on September 3, 2005.

Assuming the Pope accepts Bp. Ryan’s resignation (which I believe is a given), who is likely to replace him?

He because the Bishop of Monterey back in 1992 when his principal consecrator Roger Cardinal Mahony had a great deal of power in the Church. It was almost a certainty that one of Mahony’s auxiliaries would become the bishop of our small diocese and it happened.

With things seemingly becoming a touch more orthodox in the Church today, do you think the Diocese of Monterey will be saddled with another one of Mahony’s hand picks?

Who might be in the running for the job? Please pray for my beleagured diocese.
 
I will definitely keep your diocese in my prayers. As to who might be your next Bishop - I have found speculation to be useless.

When Bishop O’Brien resigned at the Holy See’s request over a year ago, there was much speculation about who the next Bishop would be. Several were thought to be the candidates and some thought certainly it would be a hispanic - no one thought it would be Bishop Olmsted but I thank God and the wisdom of the Pope that this was the selection made. This Diocese was in great need of an orthodox Bishop and we got one and prayfully you will too.
 
You can be assured of my prayers for you and your diocese!
 
Don’t hold your breath on a quick replacement.

My Diocease has been without a Bishop since just before Easter.
 
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chrystl:
Don’t hold your breath on a quick replacement.

My Diocease has been without a Bishop since just before Easter.
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I think it will be very quick. As tiny as it is, the Diocese of Monterey (California) is rather visable. It will truly be fascinating to see if Mahony is able to push one of his hand-picked auxillaries into the position…
 
I suspect that the replacement will be a sign of Cardinal Mahony’s influence, or lack there of, in Vatican circles. Note that they didn’t draw from LA for Phoenix.
 
Joe Kelley:
I suspect that the replacement will be a sign of Cardinal Mahony’s influence, or lack there of, in Vatican circles. Note that they didn’t draw from LA for Phoenix.
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Thank God they didn’t Joe - and they did not follow the Archbishops’ recommendations either. While the Archbishop of Santa Fe has done a good job with the sexual abuse problem, he still remains rather liberal in many areas.

I have noted several of the recent appointments have been to more Orthodox and not necessarily high profile people.

My greatest concern now is for John Paul’s inevitable termination and I pray as should we all that indeed the Holy Spirit will be the governing factor in the selection of the next Pope.,and that it won’t be up to the U.S. Bishops to select him;)
 
Joe Kelley:
I suspect that the replacement will be a sign of Cardinal Mahony’s influence, or lack there of, in Vatican circles. Note that they didn’t draw from LA for Phoenix.
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Indeed.

Even though Mahony is the archbishop of our ecclesial providence, I sure hope one of his underlings dosen’t become our next bishop. We need someone from out of the state or the country for that matter.

Oakland was fortunate enough to get Bishop Allen Vigneron as their bishop, but then again their EC is headed by ABp. William Levada who is certainly more orthodox than Mahony.

A new bishop could mean all the difference in the world…
 
Since not everyone is familiar with the process of selecting a new bishop, let me offer this small insight. Every year each ordinary is required to submit a list of men in his diocese that he thinkgs would make good bishops. This list is reviewed (not vetted as some might think) by the papal nuncio. It is then forwarded to Rome with the nuncio’s comments.

When a bishop is to be selected, three men are selected as possible bishops and their names are sent to Rome. The pope will generally (but not always) select from that list. This is a time consuming process because he wants a full report on each priest that is named. If the individual(s) are already bishops the process is a little shorter because the pope already knows the background.

The pope may also ask about the state of the diocese and see if he can find a man who fits what he perceives the needs to be.

That’s it, in a nutshell. Who will the next bishop be? Only God knows.

Deacon Ed
 
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Crusader:
Oakland was fortunate enough to get Bishop Allen Vigneron as their bishop…
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I was with very mixed emotions when he was declared co-adjatator there… He was the auxiliary bishop for our Vicariate and the rector at Sacred Heart Seminary here in Detroit.

What a great guy, we miss him (though our current auxiliary, Bsp. Quinn, is an excellent man as well)
 
Deacon Ed:
Since not everyone is familiar with the process of selecting a new bishop, let me offer this small insight. Every year each ordinary is required to submit a list of men in his diocese that he thinkgs would make good bishops. This list is reviewed (not vetted as some might think) by the papal nuncio. It is then forwarded to Rome with the nuncio’s comments.

When a bishop is to be selected, three men are selected as possible bishops and their names are sent to Rome. The pope will generally (but not always) select from that list. This is a time consuming process because he wants a full report on each priest that is named. If the individual(s) are already bishops the process is a little shorter because the pope already knows the background.

The pope may also ask about the state of the diocese and see if he can find a man who fits what he perceives the needs to be.

That’s it, in a nutshell. Who will the next bishop be? Only God knows.

Deacon Ed
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My guess is that his replacement has already been identified. At the very least, the list is short…
 
I don’t know what the situation is in the Archdiocese being discussed, so my apologies.

Within my lifetime, and in the history of our Diocese, we have never been without a bishop. Our previous Bishop was transfered to Richmond the week before Easter, and we’ve been without one since. (We are part of the Archdiocese of San Francisco) Currently we have an administrator to handle the everyday goings on in the Diocease. However, appointments and other concerns which only the Bishop can handle has been put on hold until Rome appoints us a new Bishop.

As Deacon Ed has stated, all the decisions in regard to appointing a new Bishop to a Diocese is up to Rome. Whatever recommendations the Diocese, or Archdiocese, is sent to Rome may not even be one that will be appointed. At this point in time, I believe there are several other Diocese that are still waiting upon a decision from Rome, which is why I said in my initial post, “Don’t hold your breath.”

Then again, if Rome feels expediency is of importance, then I’m sure Rome will be wise enough to appoint your Diocese a new Bishop in due course.

May God guide those in Rome in appointing new Shepards to those Diocese in need.
 
As I understand it, the Vatican has been very good about appointing Bishops lately. The Archiodiocese of Milwaukee and Greenbay, for example. It took them a whole, but they seem to have a much keener eye as to what’s going in the US. I suspect they know what kind of stuff is happening in California.
 
Hey Crusader,

When our bishop was retiring and we launched our full out assault for the orthodox replacement, Cardinal Mahoney and our bishop went to Rome to lobby for a like-minded replacement. It didn’t work. We were told right up until the day we heard who was appointed that it was another liberal bishop. Archbishop Levada, from what I know, had very little to do with our appointment. Rome took one look at the CD some in our coalition sent out and gave us a great bishop. I’m very serious about the CD. Cardinal Ratzinger got word to us to spread this around to all of the other troubled dioceses. Sorry to be redundant but I’m going to re-post the CD info in case anyone missed it. You also might want to check out this group to www.catholicmediacoalition.org​

I have an answer to this one from Rome! Our bishop was of retirement age. Our diocese was very abuse ridden. We launched a final campaign to lobby for an orthodox replacement. We launched a website and some in our group gathered up all of the documentation and examples of abuses over the years (actually, a lot of it was recent since we were always being expose to it) and burned it onto a multi-media CD. It had video of clown masses, awful diocesan letters, letters to us from our Bishop, etc., etc., etc. They sent it off to many offices in Rome including the Pope, Cardinal Ratzinger’s office, Congragation of Bishops, etc., the Papal Nuncio. A few months later we were assigned a GREAT bishop. We wondered for a few months if anything we did helped and then Cardinal Ratzinger called a priest friend of ours to his office and asked him if he knew the people who were lobbying for an orthodox replacement. He vouched for us and Cardinal Ratzinger told him to tell us that the CD was the biggest thing to ever hit Rome and that everyone (presumably even the Pope) had seen it and it had been passed around. He also said we should spread this method to others. We had another independent confirmation of the success of the CD when one of us was vacationing in Rome. They ran into a friend who had a priest from the Congregation of Bishops with him. They were introduced as being from our diocese and the first words out of this priests mouth were “Are you the ones who put together that CD?” He said it was very helpful to see first hand what was happening in our diocese. If anyone else would like more info, please PM me.
 
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bear06:
Hey Crusader,

When our bishop was retiring and we launched our full out assault for the orthodox replacement, Cardinal Mahoney and our bishop went to Rome to lobby for a like-minded replacement. It didn’t work. We were told right up until the day we heard who was appointed that it was another liberal bishop. Archbishop Levada, from what I know, had very little to do with our appointment. Rome took one look at the CD some in our coalition sent out and gave us a great bishop. I’m very serious about the CD. Cardinal Ratzinger got word to us to spread this around to all of the other troubled dioceses. Sorry to be redundant but I’m going to re-post the CD info in case anyone missed it. You also might want to check out this group to www.catholicmediacoalition.org​

I have an answer to this one from Rome! Our bishop was of retirement age. Our diocese was very abuse ridden. We launched a final campaign to lobby for an orthodox replacement. We launched a website and some in our group gathered up all of the documentation and examples of abuses over the years (actually, a lot of it was recent since we were always being expose to it) and burned it onto a multi-media CD. It had video of clown masses, awful diocesan letters, letters to us from our Bishop, etc., etc., etc. They sent it off to many offices in Rome including the Pope, Cardinal Ratzinger’s office, Congragation of Bishops, etc., the Papal Nuncio. A few months later we were assigned a GREAT bishop. We wondered for a few months if anything we did helped and then Cardinal Ratzinger called a priest friend of ours to his office and asked him if he knew the people who were lobbying for an orthodox replacement. He vouched for us and Cardinal Ratzinger told him to tell us that the CD was the biggest thing to ever hit Rome and that everyone (presumably even the Pope) had seen it and it had been passed around. He also said we should spread this method to others. We had another independent confirmation of the success of the CD when one of us was vacationing in Rome. They ran into a friend who had a priest from the Congregation of Bishops with him. They were introduced as being from our diocese and the first words out of this priests mouth were “Are you the ones who put together that CD?” He said it was very helpful to see first hand what was happening in our diocese. If anyone else would like more info, please PM me.
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Whoa, that is awesome. It’s wonderful that you all took the bull by the horns and did the work necessary to ensure a good new bishop.

I think Mahony’s power is pretty much shot when it comes to influencing the future of the Church. Unfortunately because the Diocese of Monterey is so small, we might get a Mahony minion simply because the Vignerons of the world are going to far larger and higher-profile assignements.

I will most certainly take a look at the site to see the CD you are talking so highly about.

Bravo…
 
The CD is not on the site. The site is just a group of people working to influence orthodoxy in their diocese. I sent you a PM with our old archived site address to check out if you want to see what our site was. It can be done and it’s pretty cheap. We’ve even drawn up a model of what we did for other diocese. If anyone is interested, please send me a PM.
 
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