Apr 15, 2009 9:07 pm US/Eastern
Archbishop Dolan Takes Control Of Archdiocese
New York's New Spiritual Leader Installed At St. Patrick's Cathedral, Has Lengthy Sit-Down With Media
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Archbishop Timothy Dolan
CBS
Archbishop Timothy Dolan ascended to the chair at St. Patrick's Cathedral, and has officially been installed as the head of the New York Archdiocese.
Archbishop Sambi, Apostolic Nuncio to the U.S., greeted the congregation at Wednesday's Mass of Installation, and read the Apostolic Letter of Pope Benedict XVI, in which the Pope appointed Dolan to the New York archbishopric.
Monsignor William Belford, Chancellor of the Archdiocese, then received the Letter and notarized it.
The new Archbishop was then led to the cathedra by both Cardinal Egan and Archbishop Sambi, taking possession of the New York Archdiocese.
Dolan addressed the media hours before he was formally installed, answering questions from reporters at the New York Catholic Center on Manhattan's East Side.
"Part of the business of being a bishop is being a communicator," he told the reporters, before taking his first question.
The first questioner asked the incoming Archbishop if he would be an agent of change or an agent of continuity.
An animated Dolan responded:
"The most sacred responsibility that a bishop has is to pass on the faith that remains changeless and has for 2,000 years. So in substance, in the quality, no, I couldn't change things if I wanted, because they're not mine to change. I've often said our goal is to change our lives to be in conformity with Jesus's church, not to change the teachings of Jesus's church to be in conformity with what we want."
"That said," he continued, "changes in style, in the method, or the how" of the message, might be in the works.
CBS 2's Magee Hickey, who's covered the new archbishop throughout the replacement process, asked, "How are you going to get Catholics back to church?"
"That's a biggy," the new archbishop answered, after personally greeting Hickey and referencing her father, who sat in the front row of Tuesday night's Solemn Vespers ceremony.
Dolan decried a trend in which people want to be religious, but without the sense of belonging.
"They want to believe without belonging," Dolan added. "They don't mind being the sheep, but without shepherd."
Dolan elaborated on the analogy, adding, "They want to have a family, but as long as they're the only child. They don't see the need for church, they don't see the need for organized religion and that's where we bishops have got to really try to preach and invite."
In addressing the continued controversy surrounding the church and clergy abuse of children, Dolan said that despite tremendous progress in cleaning up the mess made by the guilty, there is still plenty of work to be done.
"I for one feel we need to resist the temptation to say, "Oh good that's behind us now.' It isn't behind us. We have a lot of credibility to regain, we got a lot of trust to re-earn from our people, and we still got a lot of victims, survivors, and their families out there who are hurting big time and anything I can do to help that, say but the word," he said.
But critics have accused Dolan in the past of side-stepping church abuse issues and sweeping them under the rug, rather than tackling them head on. He said he welcomes his critics assistance in coming up with more effective ways to take on the problem.
"There's always going to be some people who feel that we have not done enough and I feel that some of those criticisms have been unfair. That having been said, those people that said I could have done more or bishops could have done more, they may have a point, and we need to listen to them. We need all the help we can get, we need all the partners we can get," he said.
Acknowledging the proposed legislation by Gov. David Paterson to allow same-sex marriages in New York, Dolan said he planned to be a vocal leader against the movement and would challenge any kind of legislation permitting gay marriage.
"I would have things to say about that, you bet," he said. "We've expressed our position on that and you could expect me to articulate that with all the clarity and credibility that I can muster."
Dolan joked before he began taking questions that he wanted to avoid a media blitz by coming clean about a potential blemish on this infamous day of the American calendar.
"I do want to say something less to prove to be a scandal in the future. I did ask for a delay in reporting my income taxes, I know it's due today, but I've been a little preoccupied and I haven't a chance to prepare so my accountant, an old high school buddy, said let's put in for an extension this year, so I don't want that to haunt me later," he laughed.
The transition to power is almost complete for the 59-year-old St. Louis native. Dolan will officially take over as the head of New York's Catholic community during a 1:30 p.m. installation ceremony.
By doing so, he'll be the leader of the second-largest diocese in the nation.
Dolan is replacing the retiring Cardinal Edward Egan who was the first to greet him on Tuesday's Solemn Vespers.
The knocking on the cathedral door is a tradition older than the New York Archdiocese, but it had never been performed in its 200-year history because it is the first time a living archbishop has welcomed his successor:
"You are in our prayers," Egan told Dolan.
The 10th archbishop of New York had a message for Catholics to open the door to religion.
"We will open up in faith, hope and love to the God that gently knocks on the door," Dolan said.
He also addressed the many challenges of the church.
"The scandal of clergy sexual abuse and caring for those hurt," Dolan said. "The challenges of strengthening our parishes, schools and charitable outreach; the threats to marriage, family, to the unborn baby and the fragile human life at all stages; the need for vocations, the list is long. The list is haunting."
Joining him for the service was Dolan's second grade teacher, a now-84-year-old who inspired him to enter the priesthood. He thanked her and the hundreds of others in attendance.
"I am glad you're all here and isn't it better than doing our last minute tax returns?" Dolan laughed.
And from this first formal introduction to New York, it was clear that Dolan, formerly head of Milwaukee's archdiocese, has his own distinct style.
"It's nice to have a man of humor," one person said.
"We have a new boss," added another.
"We love him, we welcome him and we're glad he came through the door," another said.
New York Catholics will officially welcome Dolan as the new archbishop this Wednesday. Join CBS 2 for special live coverage of the Mass of installation, beginning at 1:30 p.m.
Solemn Vespers Booklet |
Installation Mass Booklet
Slideshow: New York's Archbishops
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