Dolan Is Surprise Choice to Lead U.S. Bishops' Group/ My Encounter with Timothy Dolan

Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York was elected president
of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops at a
meeting in Baltimore on Tuesday, defeating the conference's
sitting vice president, Gerlad KIcanas of Tucson. It was the
first time since the 1960s that a vice president was on the
ballot for president and lost, the Associated Press reported.
Archbishop Dolan, who was notably omitted from a list of
newly elevated cardinals last month, won 54 percent of the
vote to 46 percent for Bishop Kicanas in the third round of
voting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/nyregion/24dolan.html?_r=1

It was 2003, and the priest had opined to a reporter that women should be ordained. Faraway bishops rumbled about censure. Then he picked up the telephone and heard the baritone of Milwaukee’s archbishop, Timothy M. Dolan. Father Cooper immediately offered to resign.

No, no, the archbishop replied, we just need to repair the damage. “He was very pastoral and caring,” Father Cooper recalled.

And how was it resolved? “Oh, I agreed to recant,” he said. “He effectively silenced me.”

Bridget Mary's Reflection:

When I was a pastoral associate working at Ft. Myer Chapel in the 80's and 90's , I invited Timothy Dolan to speak to our RCIA . He was working as a secretary in the Vatican Embassy. He invited our community to come to the Embassy for a tour and a continental breakfast. He impressed me as a warm and friendly priest , who was open to questions and who loved to talk and joke with people. We enjoyed our tour and his gracious hospitality.

Archbishop Dolan is conservative and a company man. He follows the Vatican line on women's ordination. But, if the Pope changed and opened the doors to women priests, I think Archbishop Dolan would follow the pope's example and ordain women.