The Cradles of Bishops

Given this morning's rise of Bernie -- and with it, the seventh head of a Stateside diocese to come from roots of Steel (City) -- the thought presented itself to throw together a list of the local churches that, thanks to their onetime priests or auxiliaries, have cast the widest swaths across the American Catholic landscape as a result of where said locals have ended up.

Lest anyone's interested, here's what a quick rummage of the nation's largest dioceses yielded in terms of (active) episcopal diasporae... in ascending order, by contingent:

Baltimore -- 3: Fran Malooly (Wilmington), Victor Galeone (St Augustine), John Ricard SSJ (Pensacola-Tallahassee)

Lincoln -- 3: Thomas Olmsted (Phoenix), Michael Jackels (Wichita), Robert Vasa (Baker)

Washington -- 3: William Lori (Bridgeport), Kevin Farrell (Dallas), Alvaro Corrada del Rio SJ (Tyler)

Denver -- 3: Archbishop Jose Gomez (San Antonio); Walker Nickless (Sioux City), Samuel Aquila (Fargo)

Dallas -- 3: Archbishop Michael Sheehan (Santa Fe); David Fellhauer (Victoria), Michael Duca (Shreveport)

New York -- 3: Archbishop Edwin O'Brien (Baltimore), Archbishop Henry Mansell (Hartford); Timothy McDonnell (Springfield in Massachusetts)

Newark -- 4: Nicholas DiMarzio (Brooklyn), Arthur Serratelli (Paterson), Paul Bootkoski (Metuchen), Mort Smith (Trenton)

San Francisco -- 5: John Wester (Salt Lake), Randolph Calvo (Reno), Patrick McGrath (San Jose), Daniel Walsh (Santa Rosa), Carlos Sevilla SJ (Yakima)

Boston -- 5: John D'Arcy (Fort Wayne-South Bend), Richard Malone (Portland in Maine), Richard Lennon (Cleveland), William Murphy (Rockville Centre), John McCormack (Manchester)

San Antonio -- 5: Patrick Zurek (Amarillo), Ricardo Ramirez CSB (Las Cruces), Gerald Barnes (San Bernardino), Edmond Carmody (Corpus Christi), Raymundo Peña (Brownsville)

St Paul and Minneapolis -- 6: Archbishop Robert Carlson (St Louis); Peter Christensen (Superior), John LeVoir (New Ulm), John Kinney (St Cloud), Frederick Campbell (Columbus), Richard Pates (Des Moines)

New Orleans -- 6: Archbishop Gregory Aymond (New Orleans), Archbishop Thomas Rodi (Mobile), Archbishop John Favalora (Miami); Robert Muench (Baton Rouge), Roger Morin (Biloxi), Joseph Latino (Jackson)

Los Angeles -- 6: Cardinal Roger Mahony (LA), Cardinal Justin Rigali (Philadelphia), Archbishop George Niederauer (San Francisco); Stephen Blaire (Stockton), Armando Ochoa (El Paso), John Steinbock (Fresno)

Philadelphia -- 7: Michael Burbidge (Raleigh), Joseph Pepe (Las Vegas), Joseph Galante (Camden), Francis DiLorenzo (Richmond), Herbert Bevard (St Thomas, VI), Joseph Cistone (Saginaw), Michael Bransfield (Wheeling-Charleston)

Pittsburgh -- 7: Cardinal Daniel DiNardo (Galveston-Houston), Archbishop Donald Wuerl (Washington); David Zubik (Pittsburgh), Thomas Tobin (Providence), Paul Bradley (Kalamazoo), Edward Burns (Juneau), Bernard Hebda (Gaylord)

Detroit -- 8: Archbishop Alex Brunett (Seattle), Archbishop John Nienstedt (St Paul and Minneapolis), Archbishop Allen Vigneron (Detroit); Leonard Blair (Toledo), Walter Hurley (Grand Rapids), Earl Boyea (Lansing), Dale Melczek (Gary), John Quinn (Winona)

Chicago -- 9: Cardinal Francis George (Chicago; USCCB president), Archbishop Wilton Gregory (Atlanta), Archbishop John Vlazny (Portland in Oregon); Gerald Kicanas (Tucson; USCCB vice-president), Placido Rodriguez CMF (Lubbock), George Murry SJ (Youngstown), Jerome Listecki (La Crosse), Edward Slattery (Tulsa), Edward Braxton (Belleville)*

...and the winner -- the "Rome of the West," of course:

St Louis -- 10: Archbishop Timothy Dolan (New York), Archbishop George Lucas (Omaha), Archbishop Joseph Naumann (Kansas City in Kansas); Terry Steib SVD (Memphis), Michael Sheridan (Colorado Springs), Robert Finn (Kansas City-St Joseph), Rick Stika (Knoxville), Edward Braxton (Belleville)*, Paul Zipfel (Bismarck), John Gaydos (Jefferson City)

As always, corrections/additions welcome -- indeed, needed -- and all thanks for 'em in advance.

SVILUPPO: Give yourselves a hand, gang -- what started as a (very) rough list is now in the shape you see above thanks to a lot of folks pointing out one or another name or place. So for every bit and then some, a ton of thanks.

To be clear, the tally's not perfect due to some unusual career-paths... but it gives you a pretty clear look at the big picture.

What's more, though, here's another interesting factoid that popped up when crunching the numbers: the dioceses listed above for their exports represent a tenth of the US' 178 Latin-rite churches...

...and the proportion of active ordinaries drawn from that tenth? Over half -- 53 percent, to be precise.

As ever, something to ponder.

(* = Ordained a priest of his native Chicago in 1970, Braxton was named an auxiliary of St Louis in 1995, serving there until his appointment as bishop of Lake Charles in 2001. He was transferred to Belleville in early 2005.)

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