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Published: April 13, 2009
“Significant opportunity to reshape the American church”
Half of California’s bishops near mandatory retirement age
With six of the state’s twelve bishops over 70 and the Church’s mandatory retirement age of 75, looming episcopal appointments by the Holy Father could change the face of Catholicism in California.
 In a story published April 5, the Los Angeles Times reported, “With Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony prominently among them, many of the nation's senior Roman Catholic bishops are nearing mandatory retirement, offering the Vatican a significant opportunity to reshape the American church… Nationwide, the retirements will provide Pope Benedict XVI a chance to put his stamp on a church that is struggling to serve growing ranks of immigrants and recover from clergy sexual abuse scandals. Nearly one-third of 265 active U.S. bishops must submit letters of resignation to the pope within five years because they will have reached the mandatory retirement age of 75. More than half the bishops will reach the milestone within 10 years.”
While the Times’ story reported on the national scope of the pope’s “chance to put his stamp” on the episcopate, that observation has particular significance in California. Cardinal Mahony turned 73 on Feb. 27, and five other of the state’s bishops will turn 71 or older this year.
On June 14, San Francisco Archbishop George Niederauer will celebrate his 73rd birthday, and on Nov. 15, Bishop Tod Brown of the Diocese of Orange will be 73 years old.
 Bishops who will turn 72 this year include Fresno Bishop John Steinbock, whose birthday is July 16, and Santa Rosa Bishop Daniel Walsh, who was born Oct. 2, 1937. San Diego Bishop Robert Brom turns 71 on Sept. 13.
Also nearing mandatory retirement age is former San Francisco archbishop Cardinal William J. Levada, currently serving as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome. Cardinal Levada turns 73 on June 15.
“Most of the retiring bishops will probably remain on the job for a year or more after their 75th birthdays while successors are found,” said the Times. “The pope ultimately decides when to accept the resignations.”
 Citing “church scholars,” the Times report said the retirement of so many high-ranking bishops at nearly the same time represents “a coincidence as well as a rarity” that will “open the door to a new generation of leaders unencumbered by the U.S. Catholic Church's sexual abuse crisis, which has led to more than $2 billion in legal settlements.”
Others, however, see beyond the sexual abuse issue and consider the impending retirements as a chance for the pope to do something much more important for the Church: steer it in a more orthodox direction. Says the conservative L.A. Catholic blogsite, “So let's pray that the Pope names truly orthodox, truly pro-Latin Mass and truly anti-abortion successors to all the cardinals, archbishops and bishops who will retire in the next few years.”
Added one commenter on the same site, “And may the Lord grant Pope Benedict XVI good health and long life!”
Posted Monday, April 13, 2009 12:08 AM By Sieber
Benedict XVI
Ad Multos Annos
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Posted Monday, April 13, 2009 4:48 AM By Tim Scheidler
AMEN!!!!
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Posted Monday, April 13, 2009 5:28 AM By Fr. M.P.
Let's all pray that these shepherds act faithfully and that any replacements are truly faithful shepherds also. Perhaps then the L.A. Religious Congress will actually be Catholic, not just "religious."
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Posted Monday, April 13, 2009 5:32 AM By St. Christopher
This is a signal opportunity for the Pope, whomever he is remembering Benedict's age, but it is also a time of danger. There are many troublesome clergy that would be terrible bishops, perhaps even worse for Catholic orthodoxy. One true problem is the lack of traditional experience, knowledge or training for so many Catholics now. It is likely that "company men" will be nominated, and these will be much like toward the left than tradition. Pray to the Holy Ghost for change, however it must come.
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Posted Monday, April 13, 2009 5:34 AM By ssoldie
I say lets give them early retirement.
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Posted Monday, April 13, 2009 6:04 AM By Central Valley
Change can't come soon enough to the diocese of Fresno. Bp. Steinbocks health is not the best and there is talk he will ask to leave before his 75th birthday. The change will be good for Fresno, as we have not seen change in over 15 years. The last half of Steinbocks years in Fresno have been plagued with scandel.
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Posted Monday, April 13, 2009 6:38 AM By shreveport
This is a really sad story. What makes it sad is that it makes renewal of the Church the result of passive inaction rather than proactively addressing the actual problem.
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Posted Monday, April 13, 2009 9:13 AM By Lorinda
We the faithful, must also pray that the Holy Father will appoint annointed men of God, who will embrace the power of the Holy Spirit and allow the true Gospel message of Jesus Christ to spread across America! (Keep those Rosaries handy) O Mary, conceived without original sin...pray for us who have recourse to Thee!
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Posted Monday, April 13, 2009 9:18 AM By Willi H
“So let's pray that the Pope names truly orthodox, truly pro-Latin Mass and truly anti-abortion successors to all the cardinals, archbishops and bishops..." Amen to that. Let's hope that will close a bad chapter in Church history in the U.S.
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Posted Monday, April 13, 2009 9:19 AM By Ron
Why is the Vatican waiting for retirement? I know I am not the only one that has tried to alert the Vatican to the travesties occurring in these Dioceses. If the Vatican is not ignorant of what is going on, why is it allowed to continue at all?
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Posted Monday, April 13, 2009 10:58 AM By betty
I pray that God will give the new bishops the gift of courage. I often see what seems like a tremendous lack of courage on the part of bishops, clergy, etc.
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Posted Monday, April 13, 2009 1:06 PM By JLS
There are no California bishops among the almost three dozen who have written Notre Dame University's Fr Jenkins.
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Posted Monday, April 13, 2009 1:28 PM By MAJRDAD
Please join with me in petitioning the Holy Father not to decline the retirement application of Cardinal Mahony once it's mandatorily submitted. I would like to wish the good Cardinal a peaceful and expeditious retirement - with all due speed!
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Posted Monday, April 13, 2009 2:48 PM By Elizabeth
ALLELUIA!!!!!!!
TIME FOR NEW BLOOD, ORTHODOX THAT IS....
OF THE LIKES OF SALVATORE CORDILIONE (excuse the spelling) TIMOTHY DOLAN, BISHOP SOTO, YESSSSSSSSSSSSS!
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Posted Monday, April 13, 2009 3:40 PM By FHKJ
I pray that the Pope will appoint Bishops who are faithful to the teachings of the Church as promulgated by the Bishops and approved by Pope John XXIII and Pope Paul VI during the last ecumenical council of the Church: Vatican II.
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Posted Monday, April 13, 2009 4:17 PM By Angelo
What blocks the Holy Father from choosing to elevate to the
office of Bishop, Priests from the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter or Priests from Christ the Sovereign King. They are known to the world as Priests faithful to the Holy Father and
His Magisterium
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Posted Monday, April 13, 2009 4:19 PM By Jon
I understand that candidates for episcopal appointments are first vetted by the Apostolic Nuncio in Washington DC in consultation with certain American bishops, after which the approved candidates are presented to Rome. And therein lies the problem. How else to explain Mahoney in LA, or McCarick and Wuerl in DC?
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Posted Monday, April 13, 2009 4:42 PM By Tim Scheidler
AMEN!!!!
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Posted Monday, April 13, 2009 6:03 PM By Mark from PA
Do many of you actually believe that the Pope is going to name bishops that are pro-Latin Mass and they are going to start replacing English Masses with Latin Masses? I think almost all bishops are anti-abortion so I don't see this as a big issue. New bishops will most surely be pro-life.
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Posted Monday, April 13, 2009 6:35 PM By PATRICK
As many corporations are doing, I think there should be a huge "buy out" to clean out the house of bishops..
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Posted Monday, April 13, 2009 7:55 PM By Central Valley
We wonder if we will ever see a dream come true. New bishops in Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego and Fresno. How wonderful it would be to see these new bishop process into their cathedrals in square roman vestments, wearing Episcopal gloves and after saying “ In Nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sanctus” begin their first Mass saying “ Introibo ad altare Dei”. These words alone might make the concrete cathedral in Los Angeles crumble to dust. Hopefully, the Holy Father will reject any recommendation forwarded by bishops of the above mentioned See’s. Let us pray for holy orthodox men to replace them.
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Posted Monday, April 13, 2009 9:40 PM By David
Dear Central Valley -- your dream is not the dream of this orthodox Roman Catholic. I don't mind if you go to a Mass in the old rite in Latin, but don't make me go to it. As for the Cathedral of Our Lady, your "crumble to dust" was a bit silly, wasn't it?
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Posted Tuesday, April 14, 2009 7:47 AM By Ski Ven
I wish the Pope would pick someone that will make heterodox folks as mad as hornets. It is time for a purification.
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Posted Tuesday, April 14, 2009 8:43 AM By Janek
Fear not, our Holy Father Benedict the XVI will appoint truly Roman Catholic bishops who love the Traditional Latin Mass and are loyal to Rome and Holy Mother the Church. Just look around the world and the U.S.A. and see how many TLM's are popping up and being said by Bishops, Cardinals, something that would not have happend only two short years ago, the vast majority of the people are YOUNG and with children not OLD FOGIES as the Liberals love to state. Pray for our Holy Father he is under assault from within and from outside forces, the era of Masses with clowns, dancing girls, Polka, Mariachi, Rock, guitars, drums, puppets, dancing nuns, etc. is coming to a swift end. Deo Gratias Benedictus XVI!!!! Pray for the return of the S.S.P.X. to Rome where they belong.
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Posted Tuesday, April 14, 2009 9:02 AM By Fr. M.P.
Ski Ven, we will get our purification alright, but such cleansing is going to be painful because God always hands over the apostate people to their enemies for a while. Church approved Akita apparition: "Fire will plunge from the sky and a large part of humanity will perish... The good as well as the bad will perish, sparing neither priests nor the faithful. The survivors will find themselves plunged into such terrible hardships that they will envy the dead. The only arms which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the sign left by My Son (Eucharist)."
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Posted Tuesday, April 14, 2009 10:42 AM By Ski Ven
Fr. M.P., I know of an apparition that said that fire from heaven will fall upon the United States of America. I would not be surprised if the Obama administration classifies God as a terrorist.
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Posted Tuesday, April 14, 2009 12:23 PM By Central Valley
David I was stating my opinon and the opinion of many who read this blog. The comment of the hideous concrete cathedral is my opinion and I stand by it. California will be a much better place in a few years with Mahony, Brown, Brom and Steinbock retiring. Perhaps orthodoxy will be restored to California and the new Archbishop of Los Angeles can restore the three days of darkness knows as the religous education congress to the greatness Cardinal McIntyre intended it to be.
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Posted Tuesday, April 14, 2009 1:12 PM By MAJRDAD
David - fear not - no one will ever "make you go" to a Traditional Latin Mass. We older Catholics don't operate that way. But the Novus Ordo folks came along in the early 70's when I had already been attending the old Mass for about 30 years and singlehandedly took it away from me and I have been wandering in the liturgical desert of the Novus Ordo all these years through no decision or request of my own. I don't know if you've ever attended the TLM or not but if you haven't in my humble opinion you've missed a valuable spiritual experience. Before you would come out against the TLM I would hope that you would at least attend it for your own experience and satisfaction and not simply pass judgment based on someone else's evaluation. You may be very pleasantly surprised at what a spiritually uplifting experience it is. And - if not - don't worry - we older Catholics aren't going to take your Novus Ordo Mass away from you, if that's the level of spirituality that you can relate to.
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Posted Tuesday, April 14, 2009 4:27 PM By JonJ
I fail to see why so many Catholics get caught up with the music and other trivial externalities. Just because you don't like rock music doesn't make such a mass sacreligious. Raised in the era of rocknroll, I find traditional organ and guitar hymns boring. Yet, I don't try to call masses which include them "sacreligious" nor do I think they somehow invalidate the experience. Many here seem to confuse matters of taste to morality.
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Posted Tuesday, April 14, 2009 5:35 PM By Bob
I have been roaring in these post for us to be civil and not call anyone nemes or to be too judgemental. I find myself almost unable to contain myself.
Someone from the central valley thinks that Bishops in gloves and wearing fiddlestick chasubles is the essense of our faith. Someone else thinks that the greatest faith formation conference in the U.S. is terrible (why do people come from all over the world to attend?) etc.
Someone thinks that only the Latin Mass is the real Mass etc.
None of these things have anything to do with our Faith! They have to do with symbolism. If someone want to go to Mass in Latin, let them. Its OK. If they want to go in Spanish, let them. Its OK. If they want to go in English, let them. Its OK. Its all the same things, just a different language. If they want to wear filldle skick vestments, let them, its ok. If they want to wear American or Roman robes, let them. The Defender of the Faith in Rome is an American who wrote the Catechism. If things were so bad in America, and California in particular, he would have fixed it by now. Let's concentrate on Faith, not costumes and rituals. I visit churches all over the country and I have never seen Mass "done wrong".Faith folks!
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Posted Tuesday, April 14, 2009 6:14 PM By Mark from PA
Words of wisdom, Bob. Some of these comments are somewhat off the wall. Fire from heaven falling on the United States? A large part of humanity will perish? Did someone from a fundamentalist Christian sect convert some of the people here? Who is the American who wrote the Catechism?
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Posted Tuesday, April 14, 2009 6:49 PM By JLS
JonJ, if you want to understand traditional Church music including "smells and bells", the read up on it. Otherwise you're only announcing to the world that you love ignorance. God said through one of His prophets (Micah?), "My people suffer for lack of knowledge".
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Posted Tuesday, April 14, 2009 8:38 PM By Janek
My goodness it has everything with Tradition and what makes us Roman Catholics, Latin, Fiddleback vestments, Chant, kneeling, dressing modestly, sacred hymms, insense, receiving on the tounge, these are not costumes or mere rituals this is our FAITH. 40 years of Vatican 2 springtime has brought 20% Mass attendence, closed churches, closed convents, closed seminaries, closed schools, no belief in the true presence, when you attend Holy Mass you are in the presence of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior would you dress in shorts and tank tops and flip flops? And play Rock music? By the way I enjoy Rock music just not in Church there is a time for everything just not in church that is the differance.
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Posted Tuesday, April 14, 2009 8:39 PM By RR
JonJ: The Mass is Christ on Calvary in an unbloody manner. It is not a rock concert. You are not there to be entertained.
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Posted Tuesday, April 14, 2009 10:20 PM By The other Mike
Ski Ven, the heterodox folks are always mad about something. That's why the Church is in the state it's in. I hope the Pope picks someone who energizes the orthodox folks, and the folks who would be orthodox!! That would be purification we can believe in!
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Posted Tuesday, April 14, 2009 10:52 PM By The other Mike
Bob has a good point. After getting attacked from every angle, Catholics tend get a little paranoid, and sometimes react strongly to every little change to strict orthodoxy. We should concentrate on prayers, Rosary, evangilizing, good works while safeguarding our sacred traditions. However JonJ, if one is bored in Mass, a Catholic teaching or catechisim might enable one to understand and appreciate the traditional music and "externalities" of the Catholic Church. As you will someday learn, the World was not born during, and has never been in anxious wait for, the "rock and roll" era. That era is or will be over while the Catholic Era is never over.
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Posted Wednesday, April 15, 2009 1:46 AM By West LA
I am a 30-year-old professional living in Southern California. After passing through agnosticism and a bout with the Anglicans, I converted to Catholicism after college. Since then I have been to mass throughout Europe and the US. I must say for hokey, cheesy, show-tunes music the California churches can't be beat. Liturgical dancers. Check. Failed musicians pushing saccharine personal lyrics set to the 1973 Karen Carpenter tunes. Check. Ample and lazy use of “Breaking Bread.” Check.
While I respect the TLM and hope that it is available more readily, I don’t need it to feel Catholic. But what I do need is sublime beauty in the mass, some sense of elevation towards God -- a sense of holy space and sacred time. And in my experience nothing does that like the Latin hymns from the Church’s patrimony. Lest you think I am some antiquarian consider my agnostic, twenty-something girlfriend who often attends mass with me. She has no dog in the fight between pre- and post- Vatican II. Until two years ago she would be hard pressed to explain the difference between a Catholic, a Baptist and a Unitarian. Over time though I have noticed that what she loves about the Church are its traditional forms in architecture, music and liturgy. There are a few parishes in Northern California we attend that have traditional choirs singing Latin hymns. I have seen her tear up at the beauty of such music. In contrast I have also seen her roll her eyes at yet another angsty guitar riff in an LA parish. I can’t speak for everyone in my generation, but from the many I have spoken to there is agreement that the music of the modern masses is mind numbing beyond compare. And I blame Mahoney every time I sit through yet another mass praying for momentary deafness. Yes, I can drive 50 miles on every seventh Sunday for something a little more traditional, but Mahoney is clearly ignoring the Motu Propio. Yes, the commenter above is right, ultimately it is about faith, but I think God deserves better than music that should have been thrown out with the eight tracks. Call me crazy but I think Bach trumps the Saint Louis Jesuits.
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Posted Wednesday, April 15, 2009 12:36 PM By Ski Ven
You're right, The other Mike. All it takes to provoke some heterodox people is to carry a rosary, place your hands together in prayer, or kneel down in prayer. It makes me wonder if they are suffering from demonic oppression.
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Posted Wednesday, April 15, 2009 4:02 PM By Sister Act
In reply to "Ski Ven": You've got the whole matter backwards. The purpose of pastoral work is not to anger
persons but rather, with God's grace, help persons come to recognize and acknowledge the truths of religion, be they truths of reason or truths of revelation. Though pastoral work will have the effect of angering some persons some of the time, to privilege the motive of angering "heterodox" persons ("I wish the pope would pick someone [for the episcopacy] who will make heterodox persons as mad as hornets") is to confuse incidental effect with evangelical motivation. Only to someone steeped in resentment against heterodox persons (who are usually no more than materially heretical) would the idea of angering them -- rendering them as mad as hornets -- count as an accpetable motive in the place of the properly evangelical motive of helping persons see the light and then confirming them in the Faith. It is this latter motive a pope will consider in appointing bishops.
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Posted Thursday, April 16, 2009 7:06 AM By Ski Ven
Quote from Sister Act: "Though pastoral work will have the effect of angering some persons some of the time..." That was the main point of my post. Geez.
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Posted Thursday, April 16, 2009 7:11 AM By Ski Ven
Ah, so now I am a Christian fundamentalist. I have been called a lot worse before. All I need now is for Grisha to call me a religious wacko then I'll know that I must be doing something right.
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Posted Friday, April 17, 2009 10:52 AM By Talithia Kumi
to West LA: a well written, substantial comment. Check Examples from an objective observationist point of view. Check. Notation, some Masses are more appropriate in celebration and sacrifice than others. Check. I thank you.
Dressing in the proper manner for Holy Mass CAN be a sacrifice. Drivinig a long way to the "right" church CAN be a sacrifice. You are soo right young man, ( I am over that hill now). It IS about what GOD deserves; it is HIS house, HIS Word, HIS Son. Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus; and we should behave accordingly. I like you, do not need TLM to feel catholic, nor sublime. Like you, (beautifully stated) "I need some sense of elevation toward God -of sacred space and holy time" .Architecture. Art. Music. Dress. Decorum.They all matter. It is about God; not about us or current times.
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Posted Friday, April 17, 2009 10:09 PM By JonJ
Talitha, but again you talk about matters of taste. You prefer these things and seem to get more out of the experience, so there is nothing wrong with campaigning for them. Yet, ultimately, clothing, music and dress are not the essense. If others prefer other forms that are contrary to our taste, why try to dismiss their preference as less moral? Frankly, I couldn't care less what music a person listens to, as long as he or she consistently makes solid moral choices. RR, if Church music is not about being entertained but instead to make people suffer, why not purposefully sing hymns out of tune? Why not purposefully set the Church at an uncomfortable thermostat? My nephew sings in his church choir as well as the Tucson Boys Chorus. Certainly there is an entertainment element to well-executed traditional hymns. When you disparage the tastes of others, I begin to wonder if you pursue your faith for spiritual reasons or simply as a mechanism to prove earthly superiority to others.
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Posted Sunday, April 19, 2009 9:24 AM By Mark from PA
I go to Mass to be spiritually nourished and in truth I find different types of Masses to be equally fulfilling. I have gone to Mass in several different languages and found nourishment in each. Going to Mass shouldn't be a chore but a joy as we celebrate the Eucharist.
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Posted Sunday, April 19, 2009 11:49 AM By Anne T.
I, too, enjoy Masses of different kinds, but I don't like irreverence and change just for the sake of change. Priests and the people at a post-Vatican II Mass can have differences in music, etc. but still keep to the rubics of the Mass without making unapproved changes.
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