Archbishop:

...episcopacy as his newsbeat for several years...

...bishops (for the whole U.S...

...Even the U.S...

...Indeed, the more personally they are involved in affairs of the home office, and the more devoted they are to the knowledge of the appointee other than his endless task of being all things to anyiaving a "clearance" on "hot issues," like people, the less likely will they be schol- Iwrdination of women, contraception, and arly, influential, and charismatic leaders of the church...

...With candid-camera accuracy, Reese has exhibited archiepiscopal candor uncommon in prescripted proclamations...

...Though the Holy Father has said that the U.S...

...Louis priests asked...

...I would come up with some kind of an opinion-I'd try to be honest about it and say what I believe...

...The ultimate absurdity in the present process is that the appointee may be the least informed about the reasons and expectations related to his appointment...

...I wish Reese would have explained whether this absolute secrecy is politically necessary in a hierarchical church within which, of course, the pope and he alone must have the final word on all episcopal appointments...

...bothered incessantly by the local church's persistent financial problems...

...In this book, Reese takes his readers on a fairly interesting tour of the church's archdiocesan headquarters and for visits with the rather talkative people in charge...

...No one consulted is allowed (under pain of serious excommunication) to confer with the candidate or to reveal to anyone what is reported...

...prone to eccentricities, foibles, and snap judgments...

...Brothers they are, but big brothers they are not...

...Unfortunately, no taped interviews were conducted with pastors, associate pastors, women religious, members of pastoral and finance councils, nor with knowledgeable individuals like work-a-day secretaries, receptionists, and night-shift charwomen who clean up the daily debris...

...A truly representative group of U.S...

...Eventually the Vatican's Congregation on Bishops chooses candidates for referral to the pope...

...rothers they are not...

...At times, the book comes dangerously close to being an almanac...

...Why were the incumbent U.S...

...I think Reese would have produced a much better book if he had interviewed either a structured cross-section of U.S...

...After the archbishop of a province meets with his suffragan bishops to vote on candidates, he can't disclose his own first choices out of the group...

...The archbishop usually is not informed whether his choices were on the list which the pro-nuncio sent to the Holy See...

...Published within weeks after the "summit" meeting of the U.S...

...For most of the volume's journalistic scoops, he relied on over 400 taped interviews with archbishops, auxiliary bishops, vicars, chancellors, personnel experts, directors of education and of charities, business managers, and inner-circle secretaries...

...Surprisingly, Reese in his role as a political scientist doesn't analyze the appointment process in terms of political power...

...Oddly, a fundamental flaw in the summit meeting is also this book's main defect...

...Archbishop Weakland of Milwaukee: "As a Benedictine, I thought diocesan priests liked individualism-'don't touch me, let me alone, let me do my own thing!' I didn't understand soon enough the enormous amount of strokes they need- so I mishandled the priests for a few years...

...bishops, they were, in fact, his personal guests, chosen by him to speak for all the U.S...

...Just as well, because they probably don't know, or, if they did, they wouldn't tell him or anyone else "on the record...

...Though I myself never climbed to the "arch," I have been a bishop for twenty-one years and to this day can only surmise why the late Cardinal Cody of Chicago selected me to be one of his , auxiliary bishops...

...This book tells us about the human side of the U.S...

...You really didn 't have anything to say, and you said what you didn't have to say, and now you have to pay the price.'" (Say I to the cardinal in jest: "Keep up the good work...

...public figures inside and outside church circles...

...Archbishop O'Meara of Indianapolis: "While money isn't everything, it's probably better than holy cards for paying people's salaries...

...How to keep Archbishop May happy?, his St...

...After that pejorative comment about archbishops, I will say frankly that I might have been a better bishop if I had been required to report to a supervising archbishop, had profited from his direction and support, and occasionally had been inspired to see the church's big picture instead of gazing always at my own little domain...

...Similar straightforward quotes from interviews with archdiocesan officers, particularly personnel directors, brighten many pages of dull narrative about the complexity and variety of archdiocesan administration...

...archbishops at the Vatican meeting were "representatives" of the U.S...

...not unwilling to retire when the time comes...

...Neither iconoclastic nor obsequious, he is an experienced, competent, readable reporter of episcopal events and personalities (which, he says, are politically significant...

...The "representative" bishops described in this book are all archbishops...

...In the end, a priest or bishop becomes an archbishop without knowing whether many or none of his priests wanted him, whether his brother bishops had him high on their list or off it, whether the Congregation on Bishops really knew what he knew about himself, and whether the pope had even a vague "orthodoxy...

...After a resident bishop (formerly called "the Ordinary") consults his priests about qualified candidates for the episcopacy, he can't give them the names of the persons they have proposed to him...

...For example, CardinalO'ConnorofNew York: "The archbishop of New York is foolishly expected to have an opinion on every subject in the world-I have to laugh as I reflect on my earlier days...

...The result is a somewhat lopsided report of the upper echelon's self-perceptions of its leadership role...

...Always being busy seems to suppress God-given talent and opportunity for top-flight leadership...

...over-advised by a rnultitude of boards and committees...

...archbishops chosen for their positions...

...bishops or a random sample, including even some retired bishops who might have given him an earful...

...it is rather an attempt to describe "the people, processes, and structure through which the Spirit must work...

...No one, however, asked me whether I thought I was qualified...

...Though Archbishop is subtitled: "Inside the Power Structure of the American Catholic Church," its between-the-lines theme testifies to divine intervention's victory over human limitations and frailty in an institutional church expected to be a perfect reflection of Jesus Christ's teaching and ideals...

...They are hard workers, often workaholics, busy presiders over a heap of disparate ministries...

...Answer: "Wine, women and song...

...patiently and diligently solicitous for their priests' spiritual and physical welfare...

...bishops' national advisory council...

...Secrecy is the absolute.rule...

...bishops would have been either all or most of the elected officers and chairpersons of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops or a group of bishops elected by the body of bishops and accompanied by clergy and lay advisors from the U.S...

...Writing "as a journalist who is a political scientist," Thomas Reese, S.J., has had the U.S...

...spokesmen were selected not by the archbishops but by the Holy See...

...dutifully account-abletohigherchurch authorities...

...Roman Catholic church's thirty-one archbishops...

...Secrecy, he might have observed, precludes accountability and vests power in the hands of the few persons with access to all secret information...

...Rarely, if ever, does the Congregation interview the person it chooses...

...the priests' reaction to the archbishop's advocacy of Communion under both species, women as lectors and eucharistic ministers, and liturgical music at most Masses...

...According to Reese and other authorities on episcopal appointments, the Holy See investigated me, drew a profile of my character and experience, checked out my orthodoxy and morals, and gave me an okay...

...As it is, archbishops through no fault of their own generally are the weak-, est link in the ecclesial chain of command...

...That got me into considerable trouble-I thought, 'why did I have'an opinion about it in the first place...

...often miffed by being taken more seriously than they take themselves...

...William E. McManus rchbishop, its author notes, is not a description of the "Spirit working in the church...

...church...

...Reese didn't ask them...

...Readers, I think, may get the impression that most archbishops are too busy to be great...

...archbishops and the pope, Archbishop deservedly should have a wide circulation...

...Good thing...