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The Archdiocese of Milwaukee gets a new archbishop today. LaCrosse, Wisconsin Bishop Jerome Listecki takes over from Timothy Dolan, who was installed April 15 as archbishop of New York. On the ecclesial scale, Listecki appears to the right of Dolan who was to the right of retired Milwaukee Archbishop, Rembert Weakland.
The installation, according to local reports, includes a solemn Mass by invitation only. Forty bishops and cardinals plus 200 priests are expected to participate -- plus civic and ecumenical leaders.
They get to sit up front.
Retired theologian Regina Shulte, a member of the Milwaukee archdiocese, pondering the ceremonies taking place today, sent me an email saying she remembers reading somewhere that "Jesus arrived at the peak of his mission riding on a donkey - with only the locals acknowledging him."
She also sent a passage taken from the 2009 historical work, "The Sisters Who Would Be Queen" by Leanda de Lisle. This snippet involves the description of Elizabeth the First's state entry into London.
"Then, carried on a litter of white cloth of gold
lined with pink satin, came the Queen.... she wore
a gold crown studded with jewels. Elizabeth
understood, as her ancestors had, how the
power of the monarchy was rooted, in part,
in awe-inspiring displays of majesty."
"Ceremony, though it is nothing in itself,
does everything," a nobleman reminded the
restored King Charles II...over a century later.
"ceremony and order, with force, governs all...
and keeps everyman and everything within
the circle of their own conditions."
