Christine Flowers On Tumult In Catholic Church

There are tea parties, and then there are what you might call "Holy Trini-tea" parties. One of the latter recently took place in Baltimore, doing to my more liberal Catholic brethren what the tea- party movement did to secular progressives on Nov. 2. According to an Associated Press report, written in the breathless language of a political dispatch, New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan was elected president of the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops this week in what was described as a historic "upset."
The significance? Well, for starters, it's the first time in almost 50 years that a sitting vice president of the conference has been defeated for the top spot.
More important, it's a clear shot across the bow to the wing of the church that believes Vatican II didn't go far enough. Tucson, Ariz., Bishop Gerald Kicanas, a favorite of liberal Catholics, was considered a shoo-in, and his defeat was a stunning rejection of the leftward tilt some church leaders (and many in the laity) have embraced in recent years.
Click here to read the rest of Christine Flowers' column from the Philadelphia Daily News.