Pope of America (Archbishop of Archdiocese of New York)
After Timothy M. Dolan was selected to be the Archbishop of New York, the New York (NY) Times wrote in March 2009:
“The archbishop of New York, with his pulpit in the media nexus of the world, has been called the pope of America.”
In August 2012, it was announced that Dolan was not asked to speak at the Democratic National Convention, but that he had accepted an invitation for the Republican National Convention. Bill Donohue, of the Catholic League, said, “The Republicans are smart enough to get the ‘pope of America,’ and the Democrats are stupid enough not to invite him.”
The moniker of “pope of America” is unofficial and has been very infrequently used since at least 1978.
Wikipedia: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York covers New York, Bronx, and Richmond counties in New York City (coterminous with the boroughs of Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island, respectively), as well as Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster, and Westchester counties in New York state. There are 405 parishes. The Archdiocese of New York is the metropolitan see of the ecclesiastical province of New York which includes the suffragan dioceses of Brooklyn, Albany, Buffalo, Syracuse, Rochester, Ogdensburg, and Rockville Centre.
The Latin title of the archdiocese is Archidioecesis Neo-Eboracensis, and the corporate title is Archdiocese of New York.
It publishes a bi-weekly newspaper, Catholic New York (http://www.cny.org).
Google Books
Michael Augustine Corrigan and the Shaping of Conservative Catholicism in America, 1878-1902
By Robert Emmett Curran
New York, NY: Arno Press
1978
Pg. 447:
Abp. Corrigan be permitted to remain in New York he becomes virtually Pope of America, supported and ruled by Tammany Hall.
Google Books
The Grrl Genius Guide to Life:
A Twelve-Step Program on How to Become a Grrl Genius, According to Me!
By Cathryn Michon
New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
2001
Pg. 39:
Due to the religious schizophrenia that runs through my mother’s family, my aunt Susie, who was born Jewish, was due to be buried in an enormous Catholic funeral down in Virginia, which would be presided over by John Cardinal O’Connor, the virtual pope of America.
Patheos
A guy’s guy goes recruiting
February 26, 2009 By tmatt
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COMMENTS
Susan says:
February 26, 2009 at 3:48 pm
tmatt:
As a Catholic, I have to say that I have never heard anyone refer to the Archbishop of New York City as a kind of Pope for the American Roman Catholic Church.
Are you able to give me some citations to Roman Catholics (outside of New Yorkers) expressing this idea? I am truly curious where it came from.
Thomas A. Szyszkiewicz says:
February 26, 2009 at 10:04 pm
I have to agree with Susan on the whole “pope of America” bit. I don’t think it’s true at all. Egan certainly didn’t turn out that way. Whoever ends up ‘leading’ the bishops — or at least appearing to do so in the media (and not by mere election to being the president of the USCCB) — does so more by force of personality than by the mere place of being bishop. However, some combination of the two is probably more likely.
FW Ken says:
February 27, 2009 at 1:06 am
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Add me to the list of those scratching our heads over the “pope of America” business. Yes, there have been forceful and powerful men in that particular bishopric, but, as noted above, it’s a combination of the man and the post, neither alone
julia says:
February 27, 2009 at 7:25 pm
the new pope of the United States of America — the unofficial title that many pin on the man who wears a red hat in New York City.
Actually, this is off the mark. There is no Catholic Primate of the US. In any case, NYC is now the 2nd largest Catholic diocese, not the first. And the influence of the Archbishop of NYC depends on the man who holds the office.
I don’t think Egan has been very influential. Dolan may be different. He had a great reputation in St Louis and then in Milwaukee.
New York (NY) Times
Hoping for a Latino Archbishop, Eventually
By PAUL VITELLO
Published: March 2, 2009
(...)
And when the Vatican announced last week that the next leader of the Archdiocese of New York would be Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of Milwaukee — the 10th in an unbroken line of Irish-American archbishops to hold that job since 1842 — Latino Catholics in New York reacted as they would to news of another sunrise over the East River.
The muted response did not reflect indifference to the new archbishop, whom many people seemed to like, or to the notion that appointing a prelate with a Hispanic name instead of a Celtic one might be smart: Latinos are not only ascendant in New York, but also likely to be the majority of Catholics in the United States within a decade. The archbishop of New York, with his pulpit in the media nexus of the world, has been called the pope of America.
New York (NY) Post
Cardinal sin: Bam blew off DNC blessing
By CARL CAMPANILE
Last Updated: 8:15 AM, August 24, 2012
Posted: 3:32 AM, August 24, 2012
WASHINGTON — President Obama turned down a chance to have Timothy Cardinal Dolan deliver a prayer at the Democratic National Convention after Dolan told Democrats he would be “grateful” to deliver a blessing in Charlotte.
Dolan — considered the top Catholic official in the nation, as head of the Archdiocese of New York and president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops — tipped off Democrats a few weeks ago that he had agreed to deliver the prime-time benediction at the Republican convention in Tampa next week, Dolan’s spokesman Joseph Zwilling told The Post.
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“The Republicans are smart enough to get the ‘pope of America,’ and the Democrats are stupid enough not to invite him,” said Bill Donohue, of the Catholic League, who said he spoke with Dolan yesterday.
Althouse
August 24, 2012
“The Republicans are smart enough to get the ‘pope of America,’ and the Democrats are stupid enough not to invite him.”
“The Catholic vote is the most critical vote. They’re the wild card… So, why wouldn’t you ingratiate yourself to the pope of America and send a wink and a nod to Catholics?”
Who’s the “pope of America”? It’s Archbishop of New York Timothy Dolan: ...