Experience in Rome marks new
bishops
By NCR Staff
In a much-anticipated move, John Paul II named a Detroit auxiliary
with considerable experience in Rome to the diocese of New Ulm, Minn., where
liberal stalwart Bishop Raymond A. Lucker resigned last November at 73 after a
bout with cancerous melanoma.
The pope has also created a new coadjutor bishop in Fargo, N.D.,
and a new auxiliary in St. Louis who likewise are noted for Roman experience
and perspectives.
Bishop John C. Nienstedt, 54, will take over in New Ulm. Nienstedt
was appointed an auxiliary bishop for Detroit in 1996, where he had previously
served as priest-secretary to Cardinal John F. Dearden and as vicar
general.
In 1980 Nienstedt came to Rome to work in the Secretariat of State
under Italian prelate Giovanni Battista Re, who is today the prefect of the
Congregation for Bishops. Re told NCR that Nienstedt was a friend
and collaborator from those years who will do honor to the United
States.
Sources in Rome say it has long been clear Nienstedt was destined
for ecclesiastical success. When he defended his doctoral thesis at the
Alfonsiana Academy, for example, two cardinals were in the audience, Americans
William Baum and Dearden, along with future Archbishop Justin Rigali of St.
Louis.
The bishop also was rector-president of Sacred Heart Major
Seminary in Detroit, where he was an undergraduate student, and pastor of the
National Shrine of the Little Flower in Royal Oak and St. Patrick Parish in
Union Lake, both Detroit suburbs.
As seminary rector, sources said, Nienstedt blocked a former Rome
classmate from a teaching appointment over concerns that he was theologically
unsuitable.
The pope also named Msgr. Samuel J. Aquila, rector of St. John
Vianney Seminary in Denver, to be coadjutor to Bishop James S. Sullivan of
Fargo. A coadjutor automatically becomes head of the diocese upon the death or
retirement of the incumbent.
Aquila studied liturgy in Rome at the Pontifical Liturgical
Institute and is thought to be close to the former president of the institute,
Benedictine Fr. Cassian Folsom, who resigned in October under charges that he
was leading the institution too far to the right.
Re told NCR that he was especially impressed with
Aquilas intellectual and academic formation.
Aquila was born in Burbank, Calif., on Sept. 24, 1950, and was
ordained to the priesthood for the Denver archdiocese in 1976.
On June 19, John Paul also named Msgr. Timothy Dolan an auxiliary
bishop in St. Louis. Dolan recently stepped down as rector of the North
American College, the American Seminary in Rome. He is known as an affable,
effective administrator, and very loyal to church teaching. One seminarian told
NCR that he felt the hallmark of Dolans tenure was that he ran a
happy house.
Dolan is a priest of the St. Louis archdiocese and has enjoyed a
good working relationship with Rigali. The rectors job is generally
considered a launching pad to higher ecclesiastical office. Both Cardinal James
Hickey and military Archbishop Edwin OBrien once held the post.
Catholic News Service contributed to this report.
National Catholic Reporter, June 29,
2001
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