Gotham Eve

(6.17pm) Well, gang, greetings from the Big Apple... and, for now, 'nuff said.

More soon, so stay tuned -- and a ton of thanks to everyone who's helped with the travel budget.

SVILUPPO: If you don't know why your narrator's in the "Capital of the World" (and, ergo, have been under a rock for the last three weeks), here's the brief: at Roman Noon tomorrow -- 6am in the East -- it is expected that the Pope will appoint Timothy Michael Dolan, 59, the archbishop of Milwaukee, as the tenth archbishop of New York.

Dolan reportedly left Milwaukee for Gotham earlier today, and informed word says that his first public appearance as archbishop-elect will come at an 8am Mass in St Patrick's Cathedral alongside the retiring ordinary of the 2 million-member Big Apple church, Cardinal Edward Egan.

An 11am press conference is said to be on tap.

At 11.01pm Eastern, the Associated Press ran with the following:

The Associated Press has learned that Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan will be appointed as the next Roman Catholic archbishop of New York.

A church official with knowledge of when Vatican appointments are announced told the AP that the Holy See plans to announce Dolan's appointment Monday.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss the appointment.

The spokesman for the New York archdiocese would not comment.

A call to the New York archdiocesan spokesman from this outlet earlier in the evening went unreturned.

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