Timothy M. Dolan facts for kids
Quick facts for kids His Eminence Timothy M. Dolan |
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| Cardinal, Archbishop of New York |
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Cardinal Dolan during the entrance procession of mass at the University of St. Thomas (Minnesota)
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| Church |
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| Archdiocese | New York |
| Appointed | February 23, 2009 |
| Enthroned | April 15, 2009 |
| Predecessor | Edward Egan |
| Other posts |
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| Orders | |
| Ordination | June 19, 1976 |
| Consecration | August 15, 2001 by Justin Francis Rigali, Joseph Fred Naumann, Michael John Sheridan |
| Created Cardinal | February 18, 2012 |
| Rank | Cardinal Priest |
| Personal details | |
| Birth name | Timothy Michael Dolan |
| Born | February 6, 1950 St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. |
| Occupation | Prelate |
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Timothy Michael Dolan (born February 6, 1950) is an American cardinal of the Catholic Church. He is the tenth and current archbishop of the Archdiocese of New York in the United States, having been appointed by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009.
Dolan served as the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) from 2010 to 2013 and was elevated to the rank of cardinal in 2012.
The National Catholic Reporter says that Dolan represents conservative values and has a charismatic media personality. He previously served as rector of the Pontifical North American College in Rome from 1994 to 2001, as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of St. Louis in Missouri from 2001 to 2002, and as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee in Wisconsin from 2002 to 2009.
Contents
Biography
Early life
The eldest of five children, Dolan was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to Robert (d. 1977) and Shirley (née Radcliffe) Dolan (d. 2022) . His father was an aircraft engineer, working as a floor supervisor at McDonnell Douglas. He has two brothers, one of whom, Bob, is a former radio talk-show host, and two sisters. The family later moved to Ballwin, a suburb of St. Louis, where they attended Holy Infant Roman Catholic Church.
Dolan exhibited a strong interest in the Roman Catholic priesthood from an early age, once saying, "I can never remember a time I didn't want to be a priest." He would also pretend to celebrate mass as a child.
Dolan entered Saint Louis Preparatory Seminary in Shrewsbury, Missouri, in 1964. He later obtained a Bachelor of Philosophy degree from Cardinal Glennon College. He was sent by Cardinal John Carberry to attend the Pontifical North American College in Rome. Dolan earned the degree of Licentiate of Sacred Theology in 1976 from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome
Priesthood
Dolan was ordained a priest at Holy Infant Church on June 19, 1976, for the Archdiocese of St. Louis by Auxiliary Bishop Edward O'Meara. After his 1976 ordination, the archdiocese assigned Dolan as an associate pastor at Curé of Ars Parish in Shrewsbury and Immacolata Parish in Richmond Heights.
In 1979, the archdiocese sent Dolan to Washington D.C. to begin his doctoral studies at the Catholic University of America under Reverend John Ellis, concentrating on the Catholic history of the United States. Dolan's doctoral thesis centered on Bishop Edwin O'Hara of Kansas City; it was eventually published as a book. Upon Dolan's return to Missouri in 1983, the archdiocese assigned him to pastoral work in parishes for the next four years. During this time, he collaborated with Archbishop John L. May in reforming the archdiocesan seminary.
In 1987, the Vatican appointed Dolan as secretary of the Apostolic Nunciature in Washington, serving as a liaison with the American dioceses. Dolan left Washington in 1992 after Archbishop John May named him as vice-rector of Kenrick-Glennon Seminary. He also served as spiritual director at the seminary and taught Catholic history. Dolan was also posted as an adjunct professor of theology at St. Louis University in St. Louis.
Rector of Pontifical North American College
From 1994 until June 2001, Dolan held the office of rector of the Pontifical North American College in Rome. During his tenure he published Priests for the Third Millennium, and taught at the Pontifical Gregorian University and the Angelicum. He also was granted the title of Monsignor by Pope John Paul II in 1994.
Auxiliary Bishop of St. Louis
On June 19, 2001, John Paul II appointed Dolan as an auxiliary bishop of St. Louis and titular bishop of Natchesium. He received his episcopal consecration on August 15, 2001, from Archbishop Justin Rigali, with Bishops Joseph Naumann and Michael Sheridan serving as co-consecrators. Dolan chose as his episcopal motto: Ad quem ibimus, meaning, "Lord, to whom shall we go?" (John 6:68).
Archbishop of Milwaukee
On June 25, 2002, John Paul II appointed Dolan as the tenth archbishop of Milwaukee. He was installed at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Milwaukee on August 28, 2002. .....
Dolan took a special interest in priests and vocations, and the number of seminary enrollments rose during his tenure as archbishop. In an outdoor mass in September 2002, Dolan briefly wore a "cheesehead" hat during his homily in tribute to the Green Bay Packers football team. While in Milwaukee, he wrote Called to Be Holy (2005) and To Whom Shall We Go? Lessons from the Apostle Peter (2008), and co-hosted a television program with his brother called Living Our Faith.
Apostolic Administrator of Green Bay
On September 28, 2007, Pope Benedict XVI named Dolan as the apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Green Bay. Continuing to serve as archbishop in Milwaukee, Dolan's term as administrator ended on July 9, 2008, when Benedict XVI appointed Bishop David L. Ricken as the next bishop of Green Bay.
Archbishop of New York
Appointment as archbishop and installation
On February 23, 2009, Dolan was appointed the tenth archbishop of New York by Benedict XVI. Dolan succeeded Cardinal Edward Egan, who had reached the mandatory retirement age of 75 for prelates in 2007.
According to Dolan, Apostolic Nuncio Pietro Sambi notified him by phone of his appointment in New York "nine, ten days" prior to the official announcement. Dolan said that when he was appointed auxiliary bishop of St. Louis and archbishop of Milwaukee, he was told on the phone that the pope (John Paul II) "would like [him] to" take the posts. In contrast, Sambi told Dolan that "the Pope (Benedict XVI) had appointed [him]" to New York, giving Dolan little choice other than to accept it.
Before Dolan's appointment as archbishop of New York, observers had repeatedly mentioned him as a possible successor to Egan. John L. Allen Jr., Vatican correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter, noted that Benedict XVI's appointment of Dolan followed his pattern of choosing prelates "who are basically conservative in both their politics and their theology, but also upbeat, pastoral figures given to dialogue."
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Dolan was installed as archbishop of New York at St. Patrick's Cathedral on April 15, 2009. He wore the pectoral cross used by his 19th-century predecessor, Archbishop John Hughes. Eleven cardinals and several New York elected officials attended the ceremony. Dolan received the pallium, a vestment worn by metropolitan bishops, from Benedict XVI on June 29, 2009, in a ceremony at St. Peter's Basilica.
Closing of schools and parishes
Soon after his arrival in New York, Dolan oversaw two "strategic planning" processes on the utilization of archdiocesan schools and parishes. Pathways to Excellence", held between 2009 and 2013, examined the elementary schools. "Making All Things New", between 2010 and 2015, examined the parishes. Like in many other American dioceses, Dolan closed dozens of underutilized schools and parishes would close or merge with others in their neighborhoods, due to decades-long trends of shifting populations, increasing expenses, declining attendance, and decreasing clergy.
Dolan served as chair of the board of directors of Catholic Relief Services, in which capacity he visited Ethiopia and India, until his election as USCCB president. He remains a member of the Board of Trustees of The Catholic University of America.
Apostolic visitations
..... Dolan was part of a team that included Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, archbishop emeritus of Westminster; Cardinal Seán Patrick O'Malley of Boston; Toronto's Archbishop Thomas Christopher Collins; and Ottawa's Archbishop Terrence Prendergast. They reported their findings to Pope Benedict XVI in 2012.
On January 5, 2011, Dolan was appointed to the newly created Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization.
In 2011, at the Vatican's request, Dolan led a visitation (investigation) of the Pontifical Irish College, the seminary for Irish seminarians and priests studying in Rome. His 2012 report was highly critical of the college. It said that "a disturbingly significant number of seminarians gave a negative assessment of the atmosphere of the house". The report said that the staff were "critical about any emphasis on Rome, tradition, the magisterium, piety or assertive orthodoxy, while the students are enthusiastic about these features". It also said: "The apostolic visitor noted, and heard from students, an 'anti-ecclesial bias' in theological formation.
Dolan's report recommended that the college make staff changes. As a result, the college reassigned three staff members back to Ireland and a fourth one resigned" The four Irish archbishops (Cardinal Seán Brady, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin; Archbishop Michael Neary; and Archbishop Dermot Clifford) responded to the report, saying that "a deep prejudice appears to have coloured the visitation and from the outset it led to the hostile tone and content of the report".
Current actions
On December 29, 2011, Dolan was appointed a member of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications for a five-year renewable term. On April 21, 2011, he was appointed a member of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches.
On January 24, 2012, Dolan went on a religious pilgrimage to Israel and the West Bank, where he met the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Fouad Twal. On November 30, 2013, Pope Francis named Dolan a member of the Congregation for Catholic Education.
On September 3, 2014, Dolan denied requests by the Diocese of Peoria to receive the remains of Archbishop Fulton Sheen, who had been entombed in St. Patrick's Cathedral since his death in 1979. The diocese sued the archdiocese, claiming that it owned the rights to remains. On November 17, 2016, Judge Arlene Bluth of the New York State Supreme Court ordered the archdiocese to transfer the remains to Peoria.
On September 13, 2014, Dolan was appointed a member of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.
Dolan completed a pilgrimage to the Knock Shrine in Knock Ireland, in 2015. On May 13, 2017, he celebrated a requiem mass when John Curry, the youngest witness to the Knock apparition, was re-interred in St. Patrick's Old Cathedral cemetery in Lower Manhattan after being disinterred from an unmarked grave on Long Island. At the inauguration of US President Donald Trump on January 20, 2017, Dolan delivered the first benediction. His invocation included a recitation of King Solomon's prayer from the Book of Wisdom.
Dolan in August 2020 offered the opening prayer for the 2020 Republican National Convention. In February 2023, Dolan announced that the archdiocese was closing 12 schools that had not recovered financially from the COVID-19 pandemic.
On April 13, 2024, during a visit to Jerusalem, Dolan and his entourage were forced to take cover due to an Iranian missile attack on the city. The attack was a response to an April 1. Israeli airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria. No one in Dolan's group was injured. .....
USCCB
Within the USCCB, Dolan chairs the Priestly Life and Ministry Committee and sits on the Subcommittee on the Church in Africa. In November 2007, he lost the election for USCCB vice president, being defeated by Bishop Gerald Kicanas by a margin of 22 votes.
Dolan was elected on November 16, 2010, to the USCCB presidency, becoming the first New York prelate to hold this post. Dolan replaced Cardinal Francis George, who did not run for re-election. In a vote of 128 to 111, Dolan defeated Kicanas and eight other candidates to win the three-year term. Dolan took office two days later and served as president until November 12, 2013.
Cardinal
Dolan was elevated to the rank of cardinal by Benedict XVI on February 18, 2012. The day before the consistory, Dolan addressed the pope and the College of Cardinals on spreading the faith in a secularized world. He was created Cardinal Priest of the Nostra Signora di Guadalupe a Monte Mario church in Rome Dolan was the first archbishop of New York since 1946 not to receive the titular church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo, as that title was still being held by his predecessor, Cardinal Egan.
After Benedict XVI announced his retirement as pope due to ill health, effective February 28, 2013, the press suggested Dolan as a papabile, a possible successor to Benedict.
Views
Race and police issues
On June 2, 2020, Cardinal Dolan spoke on his podcast regarding the protests and police action following the murders of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery, and the shooting of Breonna Taylor. In this podcast interview, he attempted to speak to both protesters and police. He argued that police were mostly good people, even comparing them to priests. He also said that the protesters had an important message. He said that black lives matter, bracketing the statement before and after with "all lives matter" and "police lives matter."
In a June 28, 2020 Wall Street Journal opinion piece, Dolan argued against removing statues of historical figures, even if they had a history of upholding slavery and white supremacy. This followed weeks of protests in which monuments commemorating figures associated with racism, white supremacy, and colonialism had been removed by protestors and civic leaders.
In an opinion piece for the New York Post published on July 1, 2020, Dolan called for an end to the demonization of the New York City Police Department. He said that "the most stinging rebuke" of the murder of George Floyd by a policeman in Minneapolis "comes from – guess who? The cops I chat with on the sidewalks of New York." He wrote that "in a recent meeting with community activists, one black leader reminded us, 'Don't give me this "get-rid-of-the-cops" rant! You on Madison Avenue or Park Avenue might not need the police. We up in The Bronx sure do!'"
War and capital punishment
While noting that the "Church has weighed in" against the war in Iraq and capital punishment, Dolan defended his silence regarding President George W. Bush's 2001 appearance at Notre Dame by saying, "Where President Bush would have taken positions on those two hot-button issues that I'd be uncomfortable with, namely the war and capital punishment, I would have to give him the benefit of the doubt to say that those two issues are open to some discussion and are not intrinsically evil. ....."
Terrorism
Dolan visited Ground Zero, the site of the September 11 attacks, the week after his installation as Archbishop of New York. After reciting the same prayer used by Benedict XVI during his visit to the United States, Dolan remarked, "We'll never stop crying. But it's also about September 12th and all the renewal and rebuilding and hope and solidarity and compassion that symbolizes this great community and still does."
Letter to all cardinals
In July 2020, conservative author George Weigel's book The Next Pope: The Office of Peter and a Church in Mission was sent to all 222 cardinals with an accompanying letter from Cardinal Dolan stating: "I am grateful to Ignatius Press for making this important reflection on the future of the Church available to the College of Cardinals." Some cardinals saw this as a violation of the 1996 apostolic constitution Universi Dominici gregis in which Pope John Paul II "forbid(s) anyone, even if he is a Cardinal, during the Pope's lifetime and without having consulted him, to make plans concerning the election of his successor." Dolan had earlier been critical of the way Pope Francis had organized the 2015 Synod on the Family.
Distinctions
- Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus, awarded on December 11, 2011, by Victor Emmanuel, Prince of Naples.
- Knight Grand Cross of Justice of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George
- Bailiff Grand Cross of Honour and Devotion of the Order of Malta
- Isaiah Award for Exemplary Interreligious Leadership, presented on November 2, 2015, by the American Jewish Committee (AJC). It cited Doland for "his steadfast contribution and ongoing commitment to the relationship between our respective faiths".
Published books
- Dolan, Fr. Timothy M. (1992). Some Seed Fell on Good Ground – The Life of Edwin V. O'Hara. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press. ISBN: 978-0-8132-0748-3.
- Dolan, Fr. Timothy M. (circa 1993). A Century of Papal Representation in the United States. South Orange, New Jersey: Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology of Seton Hall University. .
- Dolan, Monsignor Timothy M. (2000). Priests For The Third Millennium. Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor. ISBN: 978-0-87973-319-3. (A collection of talks given to the seminarians and priests at the Pontifical North American College, a school in Rome, Italy, for Roman Catholic seminarians and priests.)
- Dolan, Archbishop Timothy M.; Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis (2001). Archdiocese of St. Louis – Three Centuries of Catholicism, 1700–2000. Strasbourg, France: Éditions du Signe. ISBN: 978-2-7468-0353-4.
- Dolan, Archbishop Timothy M. (2005). Called to Be Holy. Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor. ISBN: 978-1-59276-072-5.
- Dolan, Archbishop Timothy M. (2007). Advent Reflections – Come, Lord Jesus!. Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor. ISBN: 978-1-59276-393-1.
- Dolan, Archbishop Timothy M. (2009). Doers of the Word – Putting Your Faith into Practice. Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor. ISBN: 978-1-59276-639-0.
- Dolan, Archbishop Timothy M. (2009). To Whom Shall We Go? – Lessons from the Apostle Peter. Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor. ISBN: 978-1-59276-050-3.
See also
In Spanish: Timothy Michael Dolan para niños
- Catholic Church hierarchy
- Catholic Church in the United States
- Historical list of the Catholic bishops of the United States
- List of Catholic bishops of the United States
- Lists of patriarchs, archbishops, and bishops
