Rocco of the Whispers in the Loggia blog in Philadelphia, flippant, but for a 23 year old with surprisingly good sources offered a new candidate into the sweepstakes for the coming coadjutor appointment for the Archdiocese of St Paul-Minneapolis:
"Meanwhile, behind-the-scenes, the name of Bishop Dennis Schnurr of Duluth -- a former general secretary of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops who also served as chief organizer of the 1993 World Youth Day in Denver -- has entered the fray as a contender in anticipation of the announcement of a St Paul-Minneapolis coadjutor."
I was at Bishop Schnur's consecration in Duluth, my home town, five years ago which was a pretty big deal for that city. Here are the notes from my personal journal:
April 6, 2001 – Last Monday I drove up to Duluth and witnessed the ordination of Msgr. Dennis Schnurr as Bishop of the Duluth Diocese. He’s from some small town in Iowa. Wow! This guy is someone to watch. He had been “Executive Secretary” or some title, of the National Council of Catholic Bishops for six years and before that had worked there and for the Papal Nuncio office.
In attendance in Duluth were 3 Cardinals: Hickey (ret.) and McCarrick from Washington D.C. and Cardinal Keeler from Baltimore, 8 Archbishops, including Archbishop Kondrusiewiez (Polish) from European Russia (who is in the news a lot and will be even more when the Pope visits the Ukraine this summer), another Archbishop from Poland, the Papal Nuncio himself, and 38 Bishops, more or less. And on a cold snowy day in April in Duluth, no less, 2” the night before. That is big time representation for a small, shrinking diocese. St. Paul ordained an auxiliary Bishop a couple of weeks earlier and I’d bet he was in Duluth and was a tad envious over the different assignments. Both of the Poles most certainly have the ear of the Pope.
Very impressive ceremony at the DECC with a full house and an elegant reception afterwards. Lots of priests with bald heads in attendance. I wonder what will happen. Maybe we can supplement our Irish missionaries with Polish ones.
If I have my choice between a bureaucrat or a theologian, I would rather have a theologian as our new coadjutor.
1 comment:
I'm rather curious who it will be. It's sort of like watching one of those chess matches where the pieces are played by people...bishop to queen's knight 3.
And whether Schnurr or Aquila, I find it hard to believe that their successor wouldn't be named simultaneously or in very short order...as well as Carlson's successor. Otherwise there will be too many vacancies in this province.
In any case, I don't plan on fretting. God will supply.
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