Pope picks new head of N.Y. Archdiocese
Prelate is known as gentle enforcer of church teaching
NEW YORK - The next Roman Catholic archbishop of New York is known as a gentle enforcer of Vatican teaching, a faithful servant of Rome who can disarm his critics with his self-deprecating wit, human touch, and love of a good cigar.
Timothy M. Dolan, 59, was named by Pope Benedict XVI yesterday to what is perhaps the most influential post in American Catholicism. At a press conference, Dolan pledged "my life, my heart, my soul" to the 2.5 million parishioners of the archdiocese, the nation's second-largest after Los Angeles.
Dolan, currently archbishop of Milwaukee, will succeed Cardinal Edward Egan, 76, who has led the Archdiocese of New York for nearly nine years and is retiring. Dolan will be installed April 15.
"He's going to defend and promote church orthodoxy," said David Gibson, a former Vatican Radio journalist. "But he's a friendly guy who knows how to translate that into a real kind of pastoral presence."
Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley, archbishop of Boston, said that Dolan "brings substantial experience, a winning personality, and keen talent to this very important post in the life of the church."
Born in St. Louis, Dolan began his path to the priesthood as a boy, setting up a play altar in his basement with cardboard boxes and sheets. He attended a seminary prep school in Missouri and was ordained in 1976. In 1985, he earned a doctorate in church history from Catholic University.
After working as a parish priest and professor, Dolan spent seven years as rector of the North American College in Rome, considered the West Point for US priests, where he had studied for his own ordination.
"He's a very gregarious, optimistic, hard-working person," said the Rev. Greg Apparcel, pastor of the American church Santa Susanna in Rome, who knows Dolan from his years at the North American College. "He's very good at reaching out.
At the seminary in Rome, Dolan was known as a polished orator who wrote his sermons and notes in flowing cursive but rarely had to consult them. He walked the corridors talking to seminarians and enjoyed smoking Jamaican-made Macanudo cigars in his down time.
"He is utterly genuine," said the Rev. Paul Holmes, a Seton Hall University vice president who was chairman of preaching under Dolan at the Rome seminary from 1999 to 2000. "What you see is what you get."
Holmes remembers visiting Dolan at the archbishop's residence in Milwaukee in 2005, when Pope John Paul II was close to death. Dolan asked his guests whether they minded eating off TV trays in the living room so that they could watch the news.
"He wouldn't let ceremony stand in the way of human beings doing the most human things," Holmes said.
Like other bishops of his generation, Dolan is known as a defender of Catholic orthodoxy, affirming church teaching against abortion and supporting the all-male celibate priesthood.
But he also "understands the way to lead people to a richer, fuller life in Christ is persuading them, so punishment, vindictiveness, or pettiness of any sort is just not part of his nature," said the Rev. Steven Avella, a history professor at Marquette University in Milwaukee.
