St. Louis emeritus Archbishop Raymond Burke

Pope Benedict XVI named St. Louis emeritus Archbishop Raymond Burke to the Vatican’s influential Congregation for Bishops on Saturday.

The congregation, or Vatican office, is responsible for recommending Roman Catholic bishop candidates around the world to the pope.  Over time - and Burke is only 61 - the Congregation’s members can have a significant impact on the direction of the Catholic church.

Burke will join another former St. Louis archbishop, Cardinal Justin Rigali, at the Congregation for Bishops. He’ll be the fifth American member of the office.

Burke left St. Louis to become the prefect, or leader, of the Apostolic Signatura - often described as the Vatican’s version of the Supreme Court. Burke also is a member of two other Vatican offices, the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, which interprets canon law, and the Congregation for the Clergy, which regulates the formation and training of diocesan priests and deacons.

Whispers in the…

Joseph R. Cistone, the new bishop of the Diocese of Saginaw, speaks during his introductory press conference at the Center for Ministry in Saginaw Township. The Saginaw News.

On Wednesday, Pope Benedict XVI named an auxiliary bishop from Philadelphia - Joseph Cistone - to replace Robert Carlson as the new bishop of Saginaw, Mich. The pope named Carlson archbishop-elect of St. Louis just four weeks ago - nine months after he named former St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke to a prominent Vatican position.

Carlson’s installation is scheduled for June 10.

“It was a great surprise to find out the Holy Father was entrusting me to serve as a diocesan bishop,” said the 60-year-old  Cistone, at his news conference in Saginaw Wednesday, according to the Saginaw News. “The speed of the announcement took me by surprise, too.”

The News gave a hint of Carlson’s trademark sense of humor,

Leader in Saginaw for four years, Carlson introduced Cistone to a stunned crowd of…

St. Louis Archbishop-elect Robert Carlson speaks at the press conference to announce his appointment last month. (AP Photo/Tom Gannam)

I’ll be traveling to Saginaw next week to talk to Archbishop-elect Robert Carlson, and we’re wondering what questions you’d ask him given the chance.

Pope Benedict XVI named Carlson the 10th bishop of St. Louis last month. His installation date has yet to be set, but will likely happen sometime in June.

Send us your questions by using Civil Religion’s comment feature, and I’ll take them with me to Michigan.

St. Louis Archbishop-elect Robert J. Carlson

Pope Benedict XVI has named Robert James Carlson as the next Roman Catholic archbishop of St. Louis.

The 64-year-old archbishop-elect has led the Saginaw, Mich. diocese since 2005. He will be the 10th ordinary, or leader, of St. Louis Catholics since 1827.

Carlson’s new assignment was announced publicly at 5:18 a.m. St. Louis time on the Vatican’s website.

Carlson was also the bishop of Sioux Falls, SD for ten years before his tenure in Michigan. He succeeds Archbishop Raymond Burke, whose four-and-a-half year tenure as St. Louis Catholic leader ended in June when the pope named him to lead the Vatican’s supreme court.

Like Burke, Carlson is trained as a canon, or church, lawyer. Burke is now the head of the Vatican’s version of the supreme court.

From the Saginaw diocese’s website:

A native of Minneapolis, Minn., he was ordained to the priesthood on May 23, 1970 for the Archdiocese of St.…

President Barack Obama has accepted a highly controversial invitation from Notre Dame to speak at its May commencement ceremony — as well as receive an honorary doctorate in law.

The angry reaction to this invitation has been swift and growing, each day bringing new statements from bishops, pundits and ordinary Catholics.

Bishop John D’Arcy, in whose diocese this event will take place, has decided to give the commencement a miss.

He explains, “My decision is not an attack on anyone, but is in defense of the truth about human life.”

The Center for a Just Society supports Bishop D’Arcy and expounds on his position:

Bishop D’Arcy’s position is reflective of the outrage of many in the Catholic community. Their angst is understandable since Mr. Obama has pursued a strong anti-life agenda both before and after assuming the office of President.

Indeed, Mr. Obama’s actions are at odds with the very foundations of American law and justice: a belief that…

I have a friend whose uncle manufactured condoms. “Never depend on a condom,” he told her. Always use an additional form of birth control.”

That was “back in the day,” as everyone seems to be saying now, back when condoms were supposed to prevent conception and birth rather than death.

The Holy Father, too, made recent cautionary statements about condoms, just a few days ago, and despite the ratcheting up of stakes — death rather than birth — the pope  royally annoyed a whole slew of the usual critics — mainly from the West.

This onslaught of disapproval has been so noisy, one can be forgiven for believing the Pope is entirely alone with his “quaint” and “dangerous” views.

Think again: Dr. Edward Green, Director of the AIDS Prevention Research Project at the Harvard School of Public Health and Center for Population and Development Studies has gone on record the last few days as defending the…

Archbishop Timothy Dolan

Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan was named archbishop of New York by Pope Benedict XVI Monday.

Dolan, the 59-year-old St. Louis native, has been rumored to be Benedict’s pick to head the most prominent diocese in the U.S. for months.

“My brother bishops, priests, religious women and men, seminarians, committed Catholics of this wonderful Church,” Dolan said in a statement, “I pledge to you my love, my life, my heart, and I can tell you already that I love you, I need so much your prayers and support, I am so honored, humbled, and happy to serve as your pastor.”

The St. Louis Archdiocese’s interim leader, Bishop Robert Hermann, said Dolan “has been a stellar priest…”

Bishop Allen H. Vigneron, 60, right, and Cardinal Adam Maida speak during a news conference in Detroit, Monday, Jan. 5, 2009. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Pope Benedict XVI came roaring back from the Vatican’s December business respite and named Bishop Allen Vigneron of Oakland, Cal., a Michigan native, as archbishop of Detroit on Monday.

St. Louis is one of 10 dioceses - and the only archdiocese - currently without a bishop in the U.S. church. (The others are Biloxi, Miss.; Charleston, S.C.; Cheyenne, Wyo.; Duluth, Minn.; Gallup, N.M.; Juneau, Alaska, and Knoxville, Tenn.) As of Monday, Oakland and Owensboro, Ky. joined the list.

The leaders of 10 more U.S. dioceses have reached the mandatory retirement age of 75. Until the end of 2008, Detroit and New York (along with New Orleans and Omaha) were the four largest American archdioceses with archbishops on the edge of retirement.

Benedict crossed Detroit off his to-do list on Monday by naming Vigneron to succeed…

Archbishop Raymond Burke

Former St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke is scheduled to be deposed by lawyers for St. Stanislaus Kostka Church on Thursday.

The deposition is part of an ongoing legal battle between the St. Louis Archdiocese and the historically Polish church just north of downtown St. Louis.

George von Stamwitz, attorney for St. Stanislaus, said Monday that he was waiting for more documents from the archdiocese, but that two litigators for his firm would be traveling to Wisconsin to take Burke’s deposition.

Bernard Huger, an attorney for the archdiocese, confirmed that Burke was due to be deposed this week.

Burke is scheduled to be in La Crosse this week for events surrounding the Dec. 12 feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe at the shrine he founded near his hometown.

In July, the archdiocese and former St. Stanislaus parishioners, including former board members, sued the church, asking a judge to restore the structure that existed before its board…

Bishop Salvatore Matano of Burlington, Vermont. Credit: cardinalseansblog.org

In a town as Catholic as St. Louis, it’s only natural that in the transition time between archbishops the speculation about whom the pope might assign as the city’s next Catholic leader runs rampant.

The truth is, no one knows who will succeed Archbishop Raymond Burke, and anyone who has any information about the specifics of the search is bound by a vow of silence - called a papal secret. A papal secret is a secret - if you’re a priest or bishop - you likely don’t want to let out of the bag.

Those who keep a close eye on this kind of thing rarely stick out their necks to offer actual candidates’ names to inquiring reporters, or, when they do name names, they take pains to ensure their own remains off the record.

What is always unclear is where prospective candidates’ names surface to begin with,…

Pope Benedict XVI speaks to the faithful from his summer residence in Castelgandolfo last month. (TIZIANA FABI/AFP/Getty Images)

The Wall Street Journal had a good story on today’s front page about L’Osservatore Romano, the official newspaper of the Vatican.

Seems the 147-year-old newspaper - at the behest of Pope Benedict XVI - is expanding the scope of its report to include news from outside the walls of Vatican City - “hard-hitting news, international stories and more articles by women,” according to the story.

As the paper’s new editor-in-chief, Giovanni Maria Vian, told the Journal:

There was a really precise request from the paper’s publisher…In this case, the publisher just happened to be the pope.

Speaking from Rome last week, St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke put the kibosh on rumors that he was meeting with Pope Benedict XVI to receive a new appointment to become archbishop of New York.

“I can assure you that’s not the case,” he told the Post-Dispatch, laughing. “This trip has been planned for months.”

Burke said he was in Rome to take part in the second International Congress-Pilgrimage for consecrated virgins.

Rumors about whom will succeed Cardinal Edward Egan as the archbishop of New York have swirled since Egan reached the mandatory retirement age of 75 last year. In April the cardinal turned 76 and it’s believed Benedict will name his replacement in the coming months.

Burke has been the archbishop of St. Louis for nearly 4.5 years, and will turn 60 in June. He’s been involved with the consecrated virgin movement since before being installed in St. Louis, serving as the group’s official liason with…

We hosted a thoroughly enjoyable — and noisy — dinner party last Friday night, full of laughter and stories as we celebrated Pope Benedict XVI’s successful visit to the United States. One of our party had been on the South Lawn of the White House, while another had taken her youngest son to the New York Yankee Stadium Mass. Two of the eight of us are professors and two are lawyers, so you know there was a lot of talking going on!

We learned about the long Washington, D.C. line that would have made it to the Washington Monument had it not curled around a corner, about old friends hailed in passing, about the excellent organization of the event.

We heard about the beautiful weather in both cities — and the St. Louis Carmelite sisters’ calm assurances that the sun would indeed shine for the New York Mass, despite overwhelming early morning…

Our religion-blogging compatriots at Get Religion, spotlighted a story from Politico Monday about Pope Benedict XIV’s U.S. visit that might be of interest to St. Louisans, especially St. Louis Catholics.

On Thursday, Benedict will celebrate the first of two stadium Masses during his visit. Thursday’s Mass will be at Washington’s new Nationals Stadium, and the second will be at Yankee Stadium on Sunday.

Politico reported that earlier this week, in ads placed in the Washington Times and in Politico,:

the anti-abortion-rights American Life League is urging the pontiff to “protect the body of Christ from the bloodstained hands of pro-abortion ‘Catholics’” by denying Communion to politicians who support abortion rights.

The issue of denying Communion to such politicians is well known to those who have followed St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke’s words and actions on this topic since his time as bishop of LaCrosse, Wis.

While most bishops agree that such politicians should not approach for Communion, a relatively…

Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the United States, beginning with his arrival Tuesday afternoon, will be heavily covered by television, radio and print media.

The following links are likely to be more informed than most:

TV/Radio: EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network): Go here for a quick look at the Pope’s schedule. Of particular interest will be ongoing coverage by anchor Raymond Arroyo (weekly presenter of The World Over Live, EWTN, Fridays, 7:00PM, CST); co-host Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, Editor in Chief of FIRST THINGS — and one of the top 10 intellectuals in the U.S. according to the New York Times; Carl Anderson, head of the Knights of Columbus.

Radio: Revelant Radio. Click onto Relevant Radio’s Listen Now section to learn how to listen through your computer. Of particular interest will be interviews by Sheila Liaugminas who will be speaking with Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J. and George Weigel as well as Helen Hull Hitchcock (director of Women for Faith & Family), and Colleen…