Munus Docendi in the Flesh...

The USCCB (God love them) has released the list of the ten American bishops who will lead the catechetical sessions for the American clan at WYD.... Drumroll, please:

Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles; Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, of Washington; Archbishop Timothy Dolan of Milwaukee, Archbishop Stefan Soroka of Philadelphia for Ukrainians; Bishop Leonard Blair of Toledo, Ohio; Bishop Blase Cupich of Rapid City, South Dakota; Bishop William Murphy of Rockville Centre, New York; and Auxiliary Bishop Jaime Soto of Orange, California.

Fabulous.... And, no, Juventutem does not get a pass to walk out while Cardinal Mahony is teaching.

Murph'll teach the kids about do's and don'ts of residence redecoration and how to send college kids from joyous to nuclear in 20 seconds. On a brighter note, it's good to see that Blase Cupich made the cut. A former rector of the Josephinum before being sent to the Black Hills, Cupich wrote an essay on the administrative role in priestly life and ministry in a compilation book on priesthood a few years back that was impressive for its humanity and pastoral spirit.

I'm really intrigued that Jaime Soto is on the list. It's especially interesting given that we have a Hispanic archbishop and somewhere in the area of 12 Latino ordinaries, and the Bosses plucked an auxiliary from obscurity. That's really exceptional... and they said Tod Brown wasn't fashionable this season.

-30-