Dismantling Lennongrad

Moving quickly as predicted, Cardinal Sean names his new vicegerente -- Fr Richard Erickson, of whom good things have been said both in and out of print:

Erikson is currently an Air Force lieutenant colonel and a top official in the chaplain service. He is scheduled to start his new job, as vicar general and moderator of the curia, around June 15. The Vatican announced yesterday that Pope Benedict XVI had named Lennon the next bishop of Cleveland; Lennon, who oversaw the Archdiocese of Boston for seven months after the resignation of Cardinal Bernard F. Law, is to start in Cleveland on May 15.

A Belmont native, Erikson has a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Southern California and taught at St. John's Seminary in Brighton before going to work for the military full-time. He has served on military bases in Alabama, California, Florida, Guam, Illinois, Michigan, and New Hampshire and in 2004 he served for three months in Iraq. His current title is staff chaplain, plans and programs, Office of the Chief of Chaplains at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington.

Erikson is the author of "Late Have I Loved Thee: Stories of Religious Conversion and Commitment in Later Life," and, according to a 2003 newsletter of the Archdiocese of Military Services, Erikson is also a music buff who has written liner notes for Andy Williams and Bobby Vinton CDs.

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