Pittsburgh the next to fall?

Update: Things appear to be in overdrive, and now the timeframe could be as early as ... tomorrow?!

Rocco is setting off speculation that Pittsburgh will have a new bishop appointed in a matter of "weeks":

In other terna news, the Pope is said to finally have the dossier for the bishopric of Pittsburgh on his desk. The final shortlist, received in Rome last month, was reportedly brought up at the last pre-summer meeting of the Congregation for Bishops in late June. An announcement ending the year-plus-long vacancy, created by the promotion of Donald Wuerl to Washington, is expected within "weeks."

The Pittsburgh post-gazette interviewed Rocco and adds details of its own:

No names of potential appointees were attached to these reports. But some have been circulating since then-Bishop Donald Wuerl of Pittsburgh was appointed archbishop of Washington, D.C,, in May 2006. Most prominent are Bishop Blase Cupich, 58, of Rapid City, S.D., Bishop Dennis Schnurr, 59, of Duluth, Minn., and Bishop David Zubik, 57, of Green Bay, Wis., a popular former auxiliary bishop of Pittsburgh.

The P-G adds an interesting detail about how such rumors are started (or news is gained, depending on your perspective):

The Rev. Louis Vallone, pastor of St. John of God, McKees Rocks, is currently teaching a canon law course in Rome, where he has been seeking news of the Pittsburgh post.

"I heard that the [list] definitely came from the apostolic delegate [in the United States] to the Congregation for Bishops. We have also heard that it was possible that the congregation had vetted it and sent it to the pope," he said.

If the list cleared that quickly, he said, it probably means that all three men are already bishops of their own dioceses. If they were auxiliary bishops, without a record of leadership, the congregation would have taken longer to vet their qualifications, he said.

One might look askance at this sort of information-culling. However, talk to most any priest in Rome and they normally have their ears to the keyhole. It's the Roman version of water cooler drama.

Since Pope Benedict seems to favor giving auxiliaries their own "bishopric," let's focus on those rumors:

Auxiliary bishops mentioned for the post include auxiliary Bishop Paul Bradley of Pittsburgh, who has been running the diocese as its administrator since June 2006, and earning high praise from priests. The others are auxiliary Bishops Thomas Paprocki, 54, of Chicago, and Joseph McFadden, 60, of Philadelphia.

Next, a little context for this appointment:

Of 10 vacant dioceses in the United States, Pittsburgh's is the second-longest unfilled, behind Birmingham, Ala., which has been open since May 2005. Ten more dioceses have bishops past retirement age, three since 2005.

And now, the absolutely obligatory quotation from Thomas Reese, SJ:

The fact that the Vatican offices shut for August means there may be a push to clear the backlog, said the Rev. Thomas Reese, senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Institute at Georgetown University, who studies the Catholic hierarchy.

"There is a certain pressure to clear the decks before they all go on vacation," he said.

Father Vallone pointed out that delays can occur if the chosen man turns it down.
"I still think it could be September, or even later," he said.

The article ends with the tidbit that bishop appointments are made known to diocesan staff sometimes in a "matter of hours, not days." I wonder if that explains why the official diocesan websites are often so slow on the uptake when appointments are announced.

At any rate, we should keep the bishop-nominees and Catholics of Pittsburgh in our prayers.