Flynn To Ideologues: Sorry To Rain On Your Parade...

As his critics get outlandishly hopped up about the selection of his successor-in-waiting, Archbishop Harry Flynn of St Paul and Minneapolis set the record straight in an interview with his archdiocesan newspaper, The Catholic Spirit.

The former Master of the Mount, who marks his 20th anniversary as a bishop today, made it clear that rumours of his imminent retirement are greatly exaggerated ... at least, for the next two years. Or thereabout. Or something like that.

For those who actually know what a coadjutor is, none of this is news. But just in case....

“Here’s the scoop,” Archbishop Flynn said. “When a bishop is over 70 and he needs an auxiliary, Rome is not inclined to give him an auxiliary, but rather a coadjutor. I’m over 70. I’ve lost an auxiliary. We need another one. I wrote for an auxiliary. Rome said, ‘No, you have to have a coadjutor.’ So I wrote for a coadjutor.

“And then at 75,” he added, “whoever that coadjutor might be, he would succeed me.”

Archbishop Flynn then joked: “If I didn’t [request a coadjutor], Bishop Pates and I would be worn down, and I wouldn’t see 75. He wouldn’t either.”

Asked if he would wait until 75 to retire, Archbishop Flynn said he would keep that “in pectore,” Latin for “in the heart.” He said he would continue to live in Minnesota after his retirement.

Meanwhile, behind-the-scenes, the name of Bishop Dennis Schnurr of Duluth -- a former general secretary of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops who also served as chief organizer of the 1993 World Youth Day in Denver -- has entered the fray as a contender in anticipation of the announcement of a St Paul-Minneapolis coadjutor.

Also prominently mentioned are Bishops Samuel Aquila of Fargo, a Denver native and product of the Stafford school, and Blase Cupich of Rapid City, a former rector of the Pontifical College Josephinum.


PHOTO: The Catholic Spirit

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