By Polly Davis Doig 
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
Tag Archives: Cardinal Dolan
An American Pope? Cardinal Dolan may charm his way to Vatican
By Greg Wilson
Cardinal Timothy Dolan is quick with a quip and, more often than not, he is the target of his own sense of humor — a trait that will continue to serve him well if he is to become the first American pope.
While archbishop of Milwaukee a decade ago, Dolan once wore the Green Bay Packers‘ trademark “cheesehead” hat during a homily. Last September, he shared a stage at Fordham University with Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert for a moderated discussion of humor and faith and more than held his own in generating laughs. And when named a cardinal last year, Dolan joked to a reporter at New York‘s fabled St. Patrick’s Cathedral that he’d pondered holding the title as a little boy growing up in Missouri.
“When I was 6 years old, I wanted to be Stan Musial!” Dolan replied, referring to the late baseball Hall of Famer.
In a more serious moment, Dolan, who grew up the eldest of five and the son of a McDonnell Douglas engineer and a homemaker, acknowledged that as a boy he would pretend to celebrate Mass.
“I can never remember a time I didn’t want to be a priest,” he said.
The self-deprecation of the New York archbishop has been known to soften a sharp intellect, staunch conservatism and formidable fundraising skills, traits that would appear to have him on the short list to succeed Pope Benedict XVI, who retired on Feb. 28. As head of the second-biggest U.S. archdiocese with 2.5 million Catholics, Dolan also has used his wit to deliver a message to critics. When some questioned his invitation to President Obama to attend the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner over the president’s views on gay marriage and abortion last October, Dolan took to his blog to reply.
“If I only sat down with people who agreed with me, and I with them, or with those who were saints, I’d be taking all my meals alone,” wrote Dolan, 63, who had earlier strongly condemned Obama‘s signature health care law, which he believes violated rights of employers by forcing them to provide health insurance that covered abortion and birth control.
Dolan is not immune to the stain of sex abuse scandals that plagued the church in past decades. The Milwaukee diocese he led from 2002 to 2009 was one of eight to file for bankruptcy since 2002 amid a flood of civil claims. Dolan publicized the names of priests accused of molesting children and also authorized $20,000 payments to predator priests to get them out of the church. Dolan called claims that the disbursements were payoffs “false, preposterous, and unjust.” Supporters say the moves showed a willingness to confront the problem head-on, in contrast to how the church had long handled the scandal.
The Rev. Donald Hying, auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, said Dolan left a lasting impression during his time in Wisconsin.
“He never really stopped being a parish priest,” Hying recalled. “What struck me the most about him was his radical availability to …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
NY Cardinal Dolan a 'happy warrior' for church
Challenging a White House mandate for birth control coverage in health insurance, New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan sounded like a general rallying the troops.
“The only thing we’re certainly not prepared to do is give in,” Dolan said at a national bishops’ meeting last November. “We’re not violating our consciences.”
Weeks earlier, he had appeared in a far less formal setting, at New York’s Fordham University with comedian Stephen Colbert. From the 3,000 cheering audience members, one student considering the priesthood asked whether he should date. Dolan said it could help decide the right path, then quipped, “By the way, let me give you the phone numbers of my nieces.”
___
EDITOR’S NOTE: As the Roman Catholic Church prepares to elect a successor to Pope Benedict XVI, The Associated Press is profiling key cardinals seen as “papabili” — contenders to the throne. In the secretive world of the Vatican, there is no way to know who is in the running, and history has yielded plenty of surprises. But these are the names that have come up time and again in speculation. Today: Cardinal Timothy Dolan.
___
Catholic News Service calls him a happy warrior for evangelization. Kean University historian Christopher Bellitto calls him the bear-hug bishop. Dolan, 63, is an upbeat, affable defender of Catholic orthodoxy, and a well-known religious figure in the United States.
He holds a job Pope John Paul II once called “archbishop of the capital of the world.” His colleagues broke with protocol in 2010 and made him president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, instead of elevating the sitting vice president as expected. And during the 2012 presidential election, Republicans and Democrats competed over which national political convention the cardinal would bless. He did both.
But scholars question whether his charisma and experience are enough for a real shot at succeeding Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. The thinking ahead of the conclave is Dolan’s chances are slim.
“It’s not a personal attack on his qualities as a cardinal or individual,” said Monsignor Michael Fahey, a scholar at Fairfield University in Conn. “Cardinal Dolan has a knack for getting people to feel relaxed and to laugh and to expect the unexpected, but that is not what the church needs right now.”