CHICAGO (IL)
Whispers in the Loggia
After a sudden afternoon flurry of buzz, at 5pm Central the archdiocese of Chicago called a press conference for 9.30 tomorrow morning for an unspecified purpose.
Slated to be held at the Archbishop Quigley Center – the former high-school seminary turned headquarters of the 2.3 million-member local church – ops have begun to anticipate that the event will introduce the city’s ninth archbishop on the retirement of Cardinal Francis George, 77. Named to succeed Cardinal Joseph Bernardin on 8 April 1997, George – widely hailed as the American hierarchy’s leading intellect for nearly two decades – recently entered an experimental treatment program amid a third round of the bladder cancer he’s battled over recent years.
The appointment to the US’ third-largest diocese – for almost a century, the nation’s largest local church – is likely to be the most significant choice for the Stateside bench Pope Francis makes during his entire pontificate. Accordingly, over recent weeks the Pope has reportedly phoned the American cardinals and other senior prelates to consult on his options for the choice facing him, even to the point of floating names he heard elsewhere past others. Given the timetable, it is unclear if the appointment has been processed through the Congregation for Bishops, which points to the surreal possibility that Francis circumvented the traditional final step to reserve the deliberations to himself.
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