Cupich (soo-pitch) will be better . Hand picked by Francis as part of his PR campaign

You should care. Archbishops have real political influence and how they conduct their jobs can affect the safety of the community (whether children get raped by priests or general homophobia is condemned). They can influence legislators and the general public on issues that affect women's rights, LGBT employment and discrimination, hate crimes legislation, etc.

They seem to like him here in Spokatropolis. He came here a few years ago to try to put an archdiocese back together that had declared bankruptcy because of child-abuse payments --- in other words, there are/were plenty of people ready & willing to find fault with him if he wasn't up to snuff (and they'll be just as ready to find fault with his replacement). That's my outsider's take, anyway.

He's described as a moderate, so he's going to be an improvement.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/09/pope-…

Growing up Catholic, the upper clergy were like invisible powers. We hardly heard from, or interacted with them, at the parish, or school level.

Dominic Holden exudes total glee talking about his catholic school upbringing. I don't blame him. I loved Catholic school. 8 years, had a blast, learned a lot. Picking out suit coats and ties at the thrift stores rocked. All us douchebag hip teens thought we were mini-David Bowies.

He may have a lot going for him, but the automatic disqualification for me is his statements that the church does not have a problem with sex abuse, that it was a problem 30 years ago, and we're on top of it now. That's not an attitude you can have when you must lead the vanguard against abuse. The archbishop of Chicago has been a position of enormous influence for a century. That it should be filled by a man who doesn't take abuse concerns with sufficient seriousness.

The city and national press is already fawning over him as a progressive, inclusive man who's a competent administrator, so I don't expect them to ask any pointed questions whether he's come around in his thinking.

Thank you, Bill. Always nice to hear from you.*

*especially now that Slog is a little thin on content (sigh...excepting "MUSIC," of course).

P.S. Somebody just pointed out this anti-74 editorial by Cupich in the Spokane paper, which I missed when it came out 2 years ago: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2012/se…

The Chicago Tribune had some good coverage of the Cupich appointment. I think he seems like a good guy.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-ca…
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-bl…

@11: Both the Trib and the Sun-Times tend toward cautious optimism whenever a new frock-wearing self-avowed celibate is sent to herd us.

And we echo the muted enthusiasm, because hey, what choice do we have? There's at least some chance that it's a change for the better.

We react the same way whenever the Daleys decide to give us a new mayor. I suspect the Welsh feel much the same when they get a new prince.

Meh. They all seem like good guys, but their collect image has been sullied by years of systemic, organizational abuse. Pretty sad...