The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has released the list of candidates ahead of its presidential and vice-presidential elections. The elections will be held during the conference’s General Assembly in Baltimore, which will be from Nov. 10-13.
In a statement released Oct. 9, the USCCB confirmed that Archbishops Timothy P. Broglio of the Military Services, Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco, Jose H. Gomez of Los Angeles, Jerome E. Listecki of Milwaukee, and Allen H. Vigneron of Detroit have all allowed their names to go forward.
They will be joined on the ballot by Bishops Frank J. Caggiano of Bridgeport, Daniel E. Flores of Brownsville, Thomas John Paprocki of Springfield (IL), and Kevin C. Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend.
The candidates were each nominated by their fellow members of the bishops’ conference in line with the conference’s statutes and bylaws.
The current USCCB president is Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, Archbishop Gomez has been serving as vice president since the last election in 2016.
The first round of voting will elect the president by a simple majority of the bishops present for the election. If a candidate does not receive 50%-plus-one of the votes, an additional ballot is taken. If there is still no winner, a run-off between the two bishops with the most votes is held until a winner is determined.
Following the election of the president of the conference, the remaining nine candidates will form the ballot for the position of vice president, with the same electoral rules applying.
Over the course of previous elections, the bishops have usually observed the informal custom of electing the serving vice president to the presidency. The most recent exception to this convention was in 2010, when then-Archbishop Timothy Dolan narrowly defeated the serving conference vice president Bishop Gerald Kicanas of Tuscon to become conference president.
The president and vice-president will each serve a term of three years.
The above comes from an Oct. 9 story on the Catholic News Agency.
So basically only two rounds of voting to determine the winner? Does an ‘outsider’ really have a chance to gain support as others drop out?
In some ways, sounds like a foregone conclusion.
It’ll be interesting to see if the USCCB will remain as it is, in structure and composition, for much longer. The great apostasy spoken of in the CCC is by all appearances underway, and it’s unthinkable it wouldn’t have implications for episcopal conferences worldwide. So should we expect to be seeing two US conferences soon, with one conference supporting, say, the heresy of female priests and one rejecting this heresy?
Something like this seems to be looming. Soon or later, the apostasy will rear its ugly head and everyone will have to choose, including bishops.
What goes on at the Religious Education Congress should disqualify Gomez
No confidence in Gomez , look for mahoney and james martin to appear in some capacity, look for more SJW posturing and insults to the faithful .