Join the Conversation
Send your thoughts to Letters to the Editor. Learn more
No real surprises in the voting for the various committee chairmen, with one exception. Bishop Oscar Cantu of Las Cruces defeated Bishop David Malloy 126-110, to lead the Committee on International Justice and Peace. +Malloy was formerly the General Secretary of the USCCB and, consequently, was well known to all the bishops. Usually, such familiarity serves as a path to victory. This time, not so much.
Archbishop Bernie Hebda also got a vote of confidence from his brother bishops, being elected to chair the Committee on Canonical Affairs and Church Governance by the largest margin of all the elections, 167-70, over Bishop Joseph Perry, auxiliary of Chicago. Archbishop Hebda was recently installed as the Coadjutor Archbishop of Newark, sent to assist the scandal-plagued Archbishop John Myers.
In other contests, the winners are:
Archbishop George Lucas of Omaha, Chair of the Committee on Catholic Education.
Bishop Mitchell Thomas Rozanski, auxiliary of Baltimore, Chair of the Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs.
Archbishop-designate Leonard Blair of Hartford, Chair of the Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis.
Bishop Edward Burns of Juneau, Alaska, Chair of the Committee on Child and Youth Protection.