UNITED STATES
Whispers in the Loggia

Honestly, it’s an even bigger deal than that.

While a Franciscan “flush” of the membership of the Congregation for Bishops has been expected for months, the move’s execution came with a flourish at Roman Noon as the Pope reshuffled roughly half the prior makeup of the all-powerful “Thursday table” that recommends nominees for episcopal appointments in the developed world.

Topping the slate of his new picks, Francis tapped Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington to join the body’s membership. Already a member of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on B16’s nod, the ever-assiduous, 73 year-old DC prelate (a veteran of the Curia from his early days overseeing the Congregation for the Clergy as priest-secretary to Cardinal John Wright) becomes the table’s lone resident member on these shores…