04.21.2009 12:24 pm
Five things you didn’t know about St. Louis’s new archbishop
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
St. Louis Archbishop-elect Robert Carlson addresses the media Tuesday morning.
Some things you didn’t know about St. Louis Archbishop-elect Robert Carlson, whose appointment was announced this morning by the Vatican:
- By the time he was 16-years-old he’d lived in 13 different houses.
- He traveled to St. Louis for 1999’s papal visit, but couldn’t get tickets to Pope John Paul II’s Mass at the Cathedral Basilica.
- Former St. Louis Archbishop John May got him tickets to the 1987 World Series between the Cardinals and the Twins when Carlson was an auxiliary bishop of St. Paul-Minneapolis.
- He’s interested and involved in ecumenical efforts.
- As of today, he’s a Cardinals fan. “I know exactly which side of my bread is buttered,” he told the Post-Dispatch after his first press conference. “Though I may have to go to confession for having booed them in the past when they’ve come up to Minnesota.”
Tim Townsend has been the religion reporter at the Post-Dispatch since June 2004. He previously covered personal finance and consumer news for The Wall Street Journal. He holds master's degrees from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and Yale Divinity School. In 2005 he won the Templeton Religion Reporter of the Year Award, given by the Religion Newswriters Association. 
Kudos, Tim on writing a beautifully-neutral, informative, and interesting article on our new archbishop. Just as November 2008 swept out the old, ugly rightwing ideology in the presidency, we can hope that our new archbishop will sweep away the misogynistic, patriarchial, right wing fundamentalistic practices of the former archbishop. I pray that our new archbishop will truly embrace the ecumenism of the great Pope John 23rd and move away from the extremism of the religious right in the church universal. Bless him and bless us all!
I had dinner with him in Rome (because we didn’t want to walk to the Coliseum) in 2000 during the youth Jubilee celebrations. He was a fun, and very funny, guy. Congrats St. Louis, a nice Archbishop.