By Laurel Nelson-Rowe of the Catholic Herald Staff

ST. FRANCIS — More than the interviews, meeting reports, photo ops, quips and banter, Catholics in southeastern Wisconsin sought a first impression of their newly named archbishop. They wanted to know, direct from Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan himself last week, that all can, and will, be well in the faith and in the church again, locally and universally.

What he offered was hope, a church historian’s perspective and insights on many fronts, delivered with a sense of understanding, urgency and energy ready to apply to the many demands facing the 10th archbishop of Milwaukee.

“I’m a man of hope. I’m a man that does not easily get discouraged. I’m a man who has such faith in Jesus Christ and his promise to stay with his church that I don’t get down,” he said.

In a 36-hour or so visit to his new archdiocese June 24-25, Dolan moved from prayer and meetings with his brother bishops here — former Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland and Bishop Richard J. Sklba, diocesan administrator — to prayer, interviews and meetings with the media and archdiocesan staff, on to a celebration with his local family — radio personality and brother, Bob, his wife, Beth, and their two daughters, of Brookfield.

During and following his trip, Dolan, 52, talked with the Catholic Herald on a range of topics. Much of the conversation dealt with the clergy sex abuse crisis, its ramifications, and his action plan. Dolan counseled Catholics and society at large to keep things in perspective, recognizing the negative and potential positive outcomes.

Acknowledging that the church is in it for a “long-haul of purgation,” and that the fundamental issue for Catholics is the “restoration of trust,” he said, “The difficulties we’re going through, I find somewhat similar to the period after the French Revolution, where there seemed to be a big question ... of what you might call the visible, the institutional church. The church was in a shambles after the French Revolution. Many people thought the visible church, as we know it, could never survive. And of course it did.

“A positive time (that) I really think we might be entering — and I don’t think I say this with any sort of naivete — we could be entering a real Catholic reformation ... where there was such a revival of sanctity, of evangelical vigor, of courage and fortitude, of a real focusing on the essentials of church teaching, a return to Jesus and the sacred scripture and the apostolic tradition,” Dolan continued.

"It was an era where, from top to bottom, the church was reformed and renewed.... At least for the church in the United States, we might be at that period now,” added the award-winning church historian.

For months in his St. Louis home diocese, Dolan — an auxiliary bishop less than 12 months — has been the crisis manager in clergy sex abuse, dealing personally with victims, their priest abusers, the parishes from which priests have been removed, and the media. He’s received generally high marks for his words and actions.

“It’s time to rebuild, and it’s time to go on” in the Milwaukee Archdiocese, Dolan urged, while acknowledging the “somber, tumultuous time” of pain and sadness caused by the church crisis may run “a little deeper ... because of the pain surrounding Archbishop Weakland.”

Dolan said his rebuilding approach includes a call for more priests and a call for current priests to rededicate themselves to integrity and fidelity (themes he struck in a series of talks at the North American College published as “Priests for the Third Millennium); more lay involvement; and leveraging the strengths and heritage of the church in southeastern Wisconsin.

According to the new archbishop, Weakland and Sklba said the “crunch in priests” would demand immediate attention. He said he would tackle the issue with three strategies:

• do anything we can to build up the priests we’ve got, to affirm them, to strengthen them;
• buckle in and do everything possible to increase vocations to the priesthood;
• do everything possible to enhance the legitimate and authentic vocations of others in the church, and to affirm their calls to service.

Dolan extended his call to lay involvement, recognizing the local church’s progressiveness on this front: “I’ve read that the Archdiocese of Milwaukee has a tremendous reputation of great pastoral collaboration, of encouragement given to lay leadership within the church. So you’re ahead of the game on that.... We relish the idea of more collaboration with the laity; we need it. Part of the reason we got in trouble (regarding the clergy sex abuse scandal) is because things were perhaps too closed; we were operating still out of the old boys network.... We need to trust our people who have a lot more expertise and who have such a meat-and-potatoes common sense that they can really give us a lot of guidance.”

Further, Dolan said he will look to clergy, religious and lay as he acquaints himself with the increasing diversity of the church in southeastern Wisconsin’s many ethnic and cultural communities — even to adding Spanish, as quickly as possible, to his repertoire of six languages.

As well, Dolan said, he will become an “activist” on the “front lines of human dignity” in many areas of social justice, including pro-life, rights of women and children, workers’ rights, and educational opportunities.

Dolan cautioned that he is “not coming in with a set agenda” but would “trust the collaboration of people on the scene.

“I don’t like to have a paternal approach, that I come in and say, ‘We’ve got to do this, and this, and this.’ I need to listen to the people in the neighborhood. I need to listen to pastors and parish leaders. What’s our front burner issue? Where does the voice of the church need to be heard?” he asked.

And though he exuded confidence and understanding of the issues and challenges ahead — to say nothing of abundant humor — in his public and private conversations following last week’s announcement, Dolan said that was the case on Monday, June 17. On that date, just before a dinner in Washington, D.C., Dolan was informed of his Milwaukee appointment by Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo, the apostolic nuncio. Following the news, Dolan said he took up Montalvo’s offer of a before-dinner that he had previously declined. And, what were the new archbishop’s immediate thoughts?

“I figured I’m pretty young, 52. I’m not even a bishop of my own diocese. I haven’t even been a bishop a year yet. And there’s a whole litany of bishops who would be eminently more qualified than I,” Dolan recalled. To those observations, Montalvo is said to have smiled and replied, simply, “Well, you don’t have to be worried about all those things because the choice isn’t yours. The choice comes from Pope John Paul II.”

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