Not just crying wolf

By Sam Lucero
News and Information Manager

The four- to six-month window has closed, and the Green Bay Diocese is still without a bishop. Recall that a loose timeframe - "around Easter" - was given to Archbishop Timothy Dolan last October when he was named apostolic administrator for the Green Bay Diocese.

As Easter 2008 approached - and passed, anxious diocesan employees were left speculating on an appointment date. They even turned to the blogosphere for direction, comfort and possible leads.

What we do know is that a flurry of episcopal appointments - a new archbishop for Mobile, Ala., bishops for Little Rock, Ark., and Des Moines, and three auxiliary bishops - were made leading up to Pope Benedict's U.S. arrival this week. The list of vacant dioceses now stands at seven (Biloxi, St Thomas Virgin Islands, New Ulm, Knoxville, Green Bay, Charleston and Juneau).

While Archbishop Dolan's prediction of an Easter appointment didn't pan out, his forecast of a streamlined process for naming new bishops did. He noted that the papal nuncio, Archbishop Pietro Sambi, would take a more expeditious approach to getting names of potential bishops to Rome.

Where this leaves us is on the edge of our seats. A new bishop is coming and that's not just crying wolf.