Rocco: Shreveport, LA to get new bishop tomorrow morning, Mobile next?

update: Michael Duca of Dallas appointed to Shreveport, LA

The next best thing to the Vatican's bulletino:

This week's first US vacancy to fall comes tomorrow with the appointment of a new bishop for Louisana's diocese of Shreveport. The traditional warning shots have been firing off for some days now, with the latest sending word of the standard 10am press conference in the border diocese. (Whispers in the Loggia)

Shreveport has been without a bishop since December 2006, the second longest diocesan vacancy in the U.S. behind Little Rock, AR (May 2006). After this post has been filled, there will still be eight dioceses in the U.S. without a bishop, and eleven more dioceses whose bishop is serving past the mandatory retirement age of 75. (Source: CanonLaw.info).

Rocco says that more bishop apointments will come down the stretch in these next couple weeks:

.... as soon as [this] week, the Pope is expected to appoint a new archbishop of Mobile to succeed the venerable native son Oscar Lipscomb, the nation's longest-serving metropolitan, who reached the retirement age of 75 in September 2006. Multiple sources report that the nod will fall to the senior suffragan of the province, Bishop Thomas Rodi of Biloxi.

[More from the Sun Herald, citing Rocco]

New bishops as presents from the boss before he visits? Check.

Speaking of check, check back here tomorrow morning once we get the official announcement.