CHICAGO (IL)
USA Today
David Gibson, Religion News Service
Pope Francis on Saturday will name Bishop Blase Cupich of Spokane, Wash., a prelate closely identified with the Catholic Church’s progressive wing, to be the next archbishop of Chicago, according to news reports.
Cupich will succeed Cardinal Francis George, according to a person with knowledge of the selection, who spoke to the Associated Press Friday on the condition of anonymity because the person wasn’t authorized to speak publicly. George, 77, has been battling cancer and has said he believes the disease will end his life.
It is the pontiff’s most important U.S. appointment to date and one that could upend decades of conservative dominance of the American hierarchy.
George is a doctrinal and cultural conservative who has headed one of the American church’s pre-eminent dioceses since 1997. In that time he became a vocal leader among the bishops and earned a reputation as a feisty culture warrior in line with the Vatican of the late St. John Paul II and retired Pope Benedict XVI.
That track record won him fans on the Catholic right, but George was seen as out of step with Francis’ desire for more pastoral bishops who are less focused on picking fights over sex and more involved in promoting the church’s social justice teachings and sticking close to the poor.
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