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The bishops’ conference of the United States has elected new leadership, choosing the head of the Archdiocese for Military Services as its president for the next three years, and the Archbishop of Baltimore as its vice president.
On the second day of its annual gathering in Baltimore, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops selected Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services out of a slate of 10 bishops standing for the highest office. Broglio received 138 out of 237 votes, putting him in place to take over from Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez as president.
According to USCCB bylaws, after a president is elected, the vice president is elected from the remaining candidates. Archbishop William E. Lori was elected on the third ballot, with 143 votes out of 239.
The vice president of the conference normally goes on to serve as president after his three-year term expires, but the current vice president, Detroit Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron, is ineligible as he would reach the mandatory retirement age of 75 before his term expires in 2025.
Archbishop Broglio
Archbishop Broglio, 70, was born in 1951 in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Classics at Boston College, an S.T.B. in Theology and a doctorate in Canon Law from the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome.
Broglio was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Cleveland on May 19, 1977, in the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception of the North American College in Rome. From 1977 to 1979 he served as associate pastor and lectured in theology at Notre Dame College in South Euclid, Ohio. From 1979 to 1983 he attended the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy. He served as secretary of the Apostolic Nunciature in Abidjan, Ivory Coast (1983-1987) and of the Apostolic Nunciature in Asuncion, Paraguay (1987-1990). From 1990 to 2001 he served as Chief of Cabinet to Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Secretary of State to Pope St. John Paul II and desk officer for Central America.
In February 2001 Broglio was named Apostolic Nuncio to the Dominican Republic and Apostolic Delegate to Puerto Rico. John Paul II ordained him a bishop on March 19, 2001.
On November 19, 2007, John Paul named him Archbishop of the Military Services USA. He was installed on January 25, 2008.
The archbishop has served as Secretary of the USCCB and as chairman of the Committee on International Justice and Peace, the Canonical Affairs and Church Governance Committee and the Task Force for the 2013 Special Assembly. He was a member of the Committee on Canon Law and Church Governance, the Committee for Religious Freedom, the Committee for International Justice and Peace, and the Subcommittees for the Defense of Marriage and Health Care.
He is a trustee and the chancellor of Catholic Distance University, a member of the Board of Directors of the National Catholic Bioethics Center, and chairman of the Communications Committee for the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
He served as a member of the board of directors of Catholic Relief Services from 2009 to 2011, and again from 2018 to the present. Archbishop Broglio is fluent in English, Italian, Spanish and French.
Archbishop Lori
Archbishop Lori, 71, was born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1951 and obtained a bachelor’s degree from the Seminary of St. Pius X in Erlanger, Kentucky. He earned a master’s degree from Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland in 1977, and a doctorate in sacred theology from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., in 1982. He was ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Washington by Cardinal William Baum in 1977 in St. Matthew Cathedral in Washington. He served as an associate pastor and thereafter as secretary to Cardinal James Hickey, chancellor, moderator of the curia and vicar general. In 1995, Lori became Auxiliary Bishop of Washington. In 2001, he was appointed bishop of the Diocese of Bridgeport, Connecticut.
Archbishop Lori is chancellor and chairman of the board of St. Mary’s Seminary and University in Baltimore, chancellor of Mount St. Mary’s Seminary, and past chairman of the board of trustees of The Catholic University of America.
Lori is the former chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine and, until 2017, the Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty. He currently serves as a member of the Administrative Committee, the Priorities and Plans Committee, the Committee on Pro-Life Activities and the Promotion and Defense of Marriage Committee. He serves as a consultant to the Committee on Doctrine, the Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism and the Committee for Religious Liberty.
In 2002, in recognition of his role as an emerging leader on the Church’s response to the sexual misconduct crisis, Archbishop Lori was appointed to the USCCB Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse. He was instrumental in drafting the landmark Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. The Vatican-approved “Essential Norms” of the Charter are now particular law for the Catholic Church in the United States.
In 2005, Lori was elected Supreme Chaplain of the Knights of Columbus, where he has the responsibility of overseeing the spiritual welfare of the Order’s 1.8 million members and their families. In his extensive writing and speaking on behalf of the Knights, Archbishop Lori has focused on the spiritual vision of Blessed Michael J. McGivney, the founder of the Knights of Columbus. He has helped guide many spiritual initiatives of the Order, most notably the Order’s third Eucharistic Congress held in Chicago in 2005 and the International Marian Congress and Guadalupe Festival held in Phoenix in 2009.
In September 2011, New York Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, then USCCB president, appointed Archbishop Lori as chairman of a newly formed Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty to address growing concerns over the erosion of freedom of religion in America. In October 2011, serving as new head of the ad hoc committee, Lori called on Congress to defend the American legacy of religious liberty during a hearing before the Subcommittee on the Constitution of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee.
In March 2012, Lori’s committee issued “Our First, Most Cherished Liberty,” a comprehensive statement of the U.S. bishops on religious liberty.
On March 20, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI named Lori the 16th Archbishop of Baltimore. He was installed on May 16, 2012.
Archbishop Lori in June 2016 released his first pastoral letter in Baltimore, “A Light Brightly Visible: Lighting a Path to Missionary Discipleship.” In the letter, he laid out his fervent desire for parish planning based on helping local Catholic communities call their parishioners to become – echoing the words of Pope Francis – “missionary disciples” who will invite others to experience a personal relationship with Jesus.
In February 2018, he released “The Enduring Power of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Principles of Nonviolence: A Pastoral Reflection” to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the assassination of the civil rights leader.
In January 2019, Archbishop Lori released “The Journey to Racial Justice: Repentance, Healing and Action,” acknowledging sins of racism within the Church in the past and present, and suggesting concrete measures to combat racism and promote racial justice.
