Pope Francis on Thursday appointed the archbishop of Newark, Cardinal Joseph Tobin, a member of the Congregation for Bishops.
Pope Francis also named Cardinal Sérgio da Rocha, archbishop of São Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, a member of the same 25-member Vatican congregation.
As a member, Cardinal Tobin joins another American, Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago. Cardinal Donald Wuerl, archbishop emeritus of Washington, D.C., was also a member of the Congregation for Bishops until aging out in November 2020 at the age of 80.
The Congregation for Bishops is responsible for overseeing the selection and appointment of bishops. It also deals with the erection and suppression of dioceses, oversight of bishops, and the preparation for and response to bishops’ ad limina visits to Rome.
The prefect of the Congregation for Bishops is Cardinal Marc Ouellet, who turned 76 last June and is one of several cardinals of retirement age leading curial departments expected to soon be replaced by Pope Francis.
Sources in Rome who spoke recently to CNA on background said that Pope Francis may be considering Cupich to replace Ouellet. Another possible replacement, according to sources, is another member of the Congregation of Bishops: Chicago-born Augustinian missionary Bishop Robert Francis Prevost.
Prevost was made one of the few non-cardinal members of the Congregation for Bishops in November 2020. Of French and Spanish descent, he spent a significant amount of his pastoral life in the Northern Peruvian Andes before being appointed Bishop of Chiclayo, Peru, by Pope Francis in 2015.
Prevost had a private audience with Pope Francis at the Vatican on March 1, further propelling speculation that he could be headed from Peru to Rome.
The prefect of the Congregation for Bishops does not have unlimited power in episcopal appointments, but plays a significant role in the process, part of which includes meeting with the pope most Saturdays….
The above comes from a March 4 story on the site of the Catholic News Agency.
“Nighty-night, baby.” We all know what kind of men get promoted under Francis.
That is the truth!
The Catholic Church is weak, corrupt, and full of poor leadership that supports their pet “gay agenda.” Not much we can do about it. Anyway, good priests and good bishops suffer, too! You can still find one or two good clerics, and a few of the faithful, Iocally, and just stick with them. Pope Francis’ successor may be just as he is– a wrecking ball to the once holy Church established by Christ! Perhaps the Council Fathers did not understand it– but their misguided goals of non-governance and foolish “freedoms for all” (instead of responsibility and faithfulness to Christ) wrecked not only the Church, but many countries in the Western world. The “smoke of Satan!” These bad clerics are all aging– those near age 75, will soon be gone, and cardinals at age 80, will no longer be eligible to vote for a new Pope.
Tobin will turn age 69 in May. In six short years, at age 75, he will be required to submit his resignation to the Pope and retire. And due to Pope Francis’ age, we may possibly have a new Pope by then, too.
Cdl. Cupich will turn 72 this month. He will only be eligible to serve for three more years, then he will be required to submit his resignation to the Pope, at age 75.
Lord, have mercy on us! Another member of the “good” old boy network with Cupich, Gregory, Wuerl, McCarrick, McElroy and others.
With Tobin, Cupich and Wuerl (who resigned in disgrace as archbishop of DC) vetting candidates for bishop from the U.S., will the names of James Martin, Michael Pfleger or Richard Rohr be sent to the Vatican for consideration or “approval?!”
(I sure hope Tobin and Cupich don’t read Cal Catholic Daily and take this as a suggestion!)
This is Pope Francis and his crony bishops laughing at the faithful. A dissident bishop who tweeted his gay lover publicly and gave a lame excuse to cover it up that nobody believes will exercise even greater influence in the church, steering it more away from the apostolic faith. I’ve just about [expletive] had it. What the [expletive] is God doing? I am sick and tired of the church and the church’s clergy being total disappointments and God doing nothing to fix things in what is supposed to be his one, holy, catholic and apostolic church. It’s like the church is a giant, corrupt, fraudulent system long past its expiration date. I am so flipping mad at God and the church.
As a Catholic, you are not supposed to do this. Being “anguished” is no excuse. This is just sin.
No, Anonymous! “As a Catholic,” all the Saints were anguished and cried out to God, at certain very difficult times in their lives, enduring great trials!
But they did not sin. They did not bear false witness and accuse people they don’t even know.
Gibberish, Anonymous.
Kevin T.– the Church has left God. Not the other way. Go worship God– by yourself. With a few of the faithful. And one or two faithful priests. And forget the rest. Garbage. That is how I have done it, for years. Better than having the entire Christian religion eliminated by death to all Christians and clerics, in a Communist country. At least, we live in a land where we can pray, receive Sacraments, and worship God. God loves His true believers, and will pursue them as His beloved sheep– not the other way. He will never, never forsake us. Believers in Communist countries, and their clerics, were all persecuted and killed. And still are, to this day. They have it far worse. If I were you– I would say your daily Rosary, make a Novena, and ask God to give you a clear answer, and for a pathway He wants you to follow. What is His Will for you? I know you will be happy to hear His reply.
No, this is a mortal sin. The Church has not left God. The Church can’t leave God. Anyone who leaves the Church to worship God is not a true believer.
His or her advise to Pray the Rosary daily is good. Add the Chaplet of Mercy and a half hour of Bible Reading. Pray the psalms.
Wrong, Anonymous. Many in the Church have left God and fallen into serious sin. And you do not know who the Church really is! It is not a mindless bunch of fake “Catholics” in name only who sin greatly, even with huge clerical titles, like Theodore McCarrick. The true Church consists of true believers who really do live the Faith and follow Jesus.
That is protestant.
From the Catechism of Pius V:
Hence there are but three classes of persons excluded from the Church’s pale: infidels, heretics and schismatics, and excommunicated persons. Infidels are outside the Church because they never belonged to, and never knew the Church, and were never made partakers of any of her Sacraments. Heretics and schismatics are excluded from the Church, because they have separated from her and belong to her only as deserters belong to the army from which they have deserted. It is not, however, to be denied that they are still subject to the jurisdiction of the Church, inasmuch as they may be called before her tribunals, punished and anathematised. Finally, excommunicated persons are not members of the Church, because they have been cut off by her sentence from the number of her children and belong not to her communion until they repent.
But with regard to the rest, however wicked and evil they may be, it is certain that they still belong to the Church: Of this the faithful are frequently to be reminded, in order to be convinced that, were even the lives of her ministers debased by crime, they are still within the Church, and therefore lose nothing of their power.
Anonymoys, only the Saints enter Heaven. Do not read Church texts above your layman’s state in life and try to interpret them. Vatican II also changed many things. Unrepentant sinners, regardless of whether or not they are considered to be valid Church members– will have a hot seat in Hell waiting for them– particularly, clerics who are unrepentant child rapists, and those advocating or committing gay sex pervert acts and promoting the sin of Abortion.
But entering Heaven was not the subject that was being discussed.
So you are clergy in a schismatic sect?
A Catechism is above a layman’s state? Really? Are you from the era when Catholics were told it was a sin to read the Bible? (They were permitted to read the New Testament and the Psalms-for you young-uns out there.)
Kevin I share your pain. It seems that the Church is one big farce–I comfort myself by the idea that its teachings are correct and that my only recourse for eternal salvation is to follow them. Where else can we go? I can’t sacrifice my own eternal life just because the hierarchy is squandering their salvation.
The infiltration continues!
Another one of Ted McCarrick’s “boys” on the Congregation for Bishops. Courtesy of Francis the Reformer.
I have come to believe that Nighty-Night and Cupich and Francesco want you and me and Kevin with the expletives out of their church. After all, at least in this country, in which Tobin and Cupich will pretty much have veto power over every empty bishopric, they can fill the pews with [illegal aliens] (and collect the federal dime), sucker the white fat cats for more money to spread around among each other, and not bother about the poor schmucks who are trying to live a decent life in this funhouse and who are finding it harder and harder to keep the faith because of the corruption among so many princes of the church. Hatred is a sin, I understand that, but I’ll just have to take my chances.
This is sinful.
No, I think he’s on to something. The bishops are destroying the church and replacing it with a gay, woke country club in which they use government subsidies and what’s left of lay donations to provide lavish benefits for themselves. Did you read about how the Archdiocese of Washington DC paid retired Cardinal Wuerl $2 million last year? Scandal! When so many parish and diocesan programs were cut, Wuerl’s already extravagant funds were increased. One Peter Five has a good article about “What does Cardinal Wuerl know that’s worth two million dollars?” Indeed, the anger of the laity at the bishops is just, not sinful.
I do not go on that website as a rule. You can’t let other people’s unjust behavior lead you to sin. You do know who the one who accuses the brethren night and day is, don’t you?
Know this, my dear brothers: everyone should be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath,
for the wrath of a man does not accomplish the righteousness of God. Therefore, put away all filth and evil excess and humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you and is able to save your souls.
Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves.
James 1:19-22
anonymous, this reflects your issues, not theirs
After reading his wiki page I understand why the subtitle calls him liberal. Why would that effect you keeping the faith? How rare it is that any bishop effects the daily life of a Catholic. OK, they move Holy Days of Obligation and kind of mess up our novenas and the 12 days of Christmas. What else do they do that even impacts you? Close schools? Sometimes they combine parishes. Ask for money once a year?
How many of his tweets do you even read if you are not a member of his diocese?
Yes, he will have input into who will become bishop in the US and Father James Martin may be selected but he is a Jesuit so maybe not.
Your prayers, if you were faithful, could move mountains. You are more interested in making mountains out of molehills.
Anon, you really aren’t a subtle racist, are you? I get the impression from your comments that you think all bishops should be white.
Look at the bishops’ major priority: immigration, immigration, immigration. The humorous reference is to the bishops’ apparent strategy of compensating for Baby Boomer death and white flight from the corrupt church by replacing them with immigrants from south of the border, all the while funded with federal government grants to assist in importing such people to this country. It’s a cynical way to put it, but it speaks the truth. Problem is, the generation after the immigrants are prone to leave the church also. What will the bishops do then to fill the pews?
The social issue of most importance to the bishops (with maybe a few exceptions) is human life and dignity. First among these is to convince others of the evil of abortion.
The Church is Holy.
There is no strategy to fill the pews with immigrants. Really there isn’t.
Government grants for immigrants do not go the Church; they go to the needs of the immigrants and to pay employees to do that work.
Don’t assume that those from south of the border are practicing Catholics.
Bob One– yes, Anonymous’ post is racist. Worthless. Racist posts should never be printed– even with corrections by the Moderator– on a Catholic website. Makes me sick with revulsion. No one cares.
Bob One and Anon the thought police of Cal-Catholic they are determined to find racists where ever they look so they can convince themselves they are good tolerant liberals.
bohemond– you did not see the original post of Anonymous. If you did, you would be sickened by it– it was KKK-style racism, very offensive! The Moderator changed the original post of Anonymous, after a day or two passed, and removed offensive racist language– and next, changed Bob One’s post. The original post of Bob One stated the reason for his alarm over Anonymous’ racist post– the reason, as stated by Bob One– was entirely removed. To begin with– racist posts with racist language should never be allowed on a Catholic website!
What’s racist about bell bottoms? People are too afraid of everything. People have skin color. What’s wrong with referring to their color?
Why is “white fat cats” not considered racist? It never ends with you people. Racism is fine against whites in your minds.
Anon, I will not take your word for it… I don’t trust liberals or anything they say
Anonymous– wrong phrase… it was “brown bottoms,” not “bell bottoms”… the whole post was immature and unkind, racist in places…
I’ll tell you what I’m sick of. I’m sick of these holier than thou people who claim to see racism everywhere where it doesn’t even exist. Calling someone else a racist must make you feel so superior. Look at the plank in your own eye. Barack Obama poisoned race relations in this country, and Biden and the Democrats are keeping it up.
Don’t “take your chances” on doing something you know is a sin. There is no chance about it. You offend God with sin and sin is punished.
This is Lent. It’s 40 days is taken from Jesus” 40 days in the desert. It is supposed to be a time of self-denial, of giving alms and of prayer. But it could also be a time of getting away from the voices of the world. The sources of temptation are the devil, the flesh and the world. There is an element in the Church that is in the world. We are supposed to be in the world but not of the world. Jesus did not eat for 40 days, he did not talk to anyone for 40 days. At the end, the devil came and tried to tempt him to turn stones into bread, to test God, and to worship him in exchange for all the kingdoms of the world.
Man does not live by bread alone but by every Word that comes from the mouth of God.
Thou shalt not put the Lord your God to the test.
You shall love the Lord your God. Him alone shall you adore.
Anonymous, Today, there are lots of sinful clerics in high posts in the Catholic Church. God weeps for His filthy, sinful Church. Wolves in sheep’s clothing.
This is heresy.
The Catholic Church is Holy.
Anonymous, Christ and His teachings are holy. But many of His phony clerics are evil– like Theodore McCarrick. Never kiss the phony robes of evil clerics, thinking that is Christ’s holy, Church! Such evil clerics belong to Satan, not to Christ. Love only Christ! Like a monk or nun cloistered and praying alone in his or her cell, adoring only Jesus– that is the Church, Christ’s holy Bride, ready for the Bridegroom and Heaven, together with the small, glorious band of other holy Brides, who are Saints.
The Church is therefore holy, though having sinners in her midst, because she herself has no other life but the life of grace. If they live her life, her members are sanctified; if they move away from her life, they fall into sins and disorders that prevent the radiation of her sanctity. This is why she suffers and does penance for those offenses, of which she has the power to free her children through the blood of Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit. CCC 827
There is a lot in the CCC and the Roman Catechism on this subject. I admit I have a limited understanding of it.
Anonymous– sadly, not many live holy lives, filled with Christ’s holy Sanctifying Grace– truly sanctified by it, and made holy, in today’s Church. For example– McCarrick, and other evil clerics like him, receive nothing, perhaps, from the Sacraments which they themselves defile, within themselves– receiving them sacrilegisly, unworthily– though the same Sacraments are valid, and others may receive them worthily, and be sanctified by them. Sacrileges have diabolic consequences– if there is no Confession and repentance of gravely serious mortal sins.
In my post of March 8 at 1:31 a.m., it looks like I misspelled the word, “sacreligiously.”
People are sinful.
How do you know that people have not repented and confessed?
You are correct that if someone takes Communion while in mortal sin, it is the sin of sacrilege.
If you are a victim of sinful clerics or have knowledge of it and you know they are still committing that sin, you need to inform their diocese.
In reference to my post of March 8, at 7:06a.m.– I think the correct spelling is “sacrilegiouly.””
There is now a procedure to follow, for informing your diocese regarding clerical sex abuse crimes. But I would first call the police.
Well, I will try once more: “sacrilegiously.” Got it!
Catholics who love Jesus Christ do not write such ignorant, unkind phrases as “fill the Church pews with brown bottoms,” so the Church can make money from federal funding– and also get “rich white fat cats” to contribute to this endeavor– etc. etc.– A very vulgar, racist, unkind, unChristian manner of speaking. Do not call anyone an unkind name, and do not say such terrible, racist things. We do not have “brown bottoms” and “white fat cats” sitting in our church pews. And Jesus Christ must not be called a racist Jewish name, either. Grow up.
What is racist about it, as opposed to it being descriptive? Really… I want to know. Why is a color descriptor about a person or a group of persons racist now?
Would it be wrong to say that a priest who works to get more youth in church wants to fill the pews with a lot of young bottoms? Would that be ageist? Their bottoms are what they sit on in the pews. It’s just bottoms with a descriptor, either age or skin color. What would be ageist or racist about that description?
And what about the whole thing in consideration of people in wheelchairs who can’t sit in the pew? Is it ableist to refer to people sitting in pews at all because that discriminates against disabled (differently abled) people who can’t sit in the pews?
Where does this woke insanity end?
Anonymous, you need to learn your manners. No, it is not polite to refer to people by their skin color. Nor is it polite to point at people in public– nor to point out any physical characteristics, publicly, such as “fat” or “skinny,” “big ears that stick out,” the “bald lady” undergoing chemotherapy for cancer, the war vet who lost a leg, a lady with “big bosoms,” or, as you did– the “brown bottoms” sitting nicely in the pews, next to you, at Mass– or possibly the priest, offering Mass for you. Manners, please!
There is a catchy new name that young people today came up with, for mocking, deriding, ridiculing, bullying, and labelling others with cruel taunts, calling others hurtful names– “shaming.” As in “body-shaming.” Many who have been thus ridiculed, humiliated, taunted evilly, bullied, shamed, and persecuted– have even attempted suicide, or have actually committed suicide! Especially kids! We need to stop this horrible, extremely immature, diabolic, sinful behavior! It is toally, alarmingly unChristian, and Satanic! Starting in early childhood, children need to learn good manners, good morals, empathy, fairness, self-control, respect for others, brotherly love, and mature behavior.
My Italian (brown-skinned) mother always told us kids, that all Hispanics are classified as “White Caucasians,” as are Italians. Both ethnic groups have experienced discrimination in America, sadly. Wonder what Abp. Gomez or Pope Francis would have to say, about such ignorant, thoughtless “Catholic” posts– with racist remarks– like “church pews filled with brown bottoms??”
O what a tangled web! Trying to read something into every appointment, phone call, or visit. Perhaps we need someone to nail some possible discussion points to a Cathedral door.
If a Donald Trump were to emerge on the Catholic landscape, he could harness the widespread religious discontent among the laity and start a bold, influential movement of reform. Just like Trump tapped into political discontent among Americans and Republicans.
I found Cardinal Tobin’s personal testimony of recovery from alcoholism to be quite moving: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vvsfS-Rh-0