CNS photo/Bob Roller Baltimore
USCCB elects new officers, committee chairs, including Atlanta’s archbishop
By DENNIS SADOWSKI, Catholic News Service | Published November 26, 2015
BALTIMORE (CNS)—The U.S. bishops Nov. 17 elected Msgr. J. Brian Bransfield as the new general secretary of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
He has been associate general secretary of the conference for five years, working alongside the current general secretary, Msgr. Ronny Jenkins, whose term is ending.
Msgr. Bransfield, a Philadelphia archdiocesan priest, will step into the position in 2016. His term will run for five years. The general secretariat oversees the work of the USCCB on behalf of the U.S. bishops.
The bishops also elected Archbishop Dennis M. Schnurr of Cincinnati as treasurer-elect. Next year, Archbishop Schnurr will succeed the current USCCB treasurer, Bishop Kevin J. Farrell of Dallas.
The bishops also voted for chairmen-elect for six standing committees: Divine Worship; Migration; Domestic Justice and Human Development; Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations; Catholic Education; and Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth. Other elections were for the boards of Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops’ overseas relief and development agency, and the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, or CLINIC.
The committee chairmen-elect each will begin a three-year term as chairmen at the end of the bishops’ fall general assembly in 2016:
– Committee on Divine Worship: Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory of Atlanta.
– Committee on Migration: Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of Los Angeles.
– Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development: Bishop Frank J. Dewane of Venice, Florida.
– Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations: Archbishop Joseph W. Tobin of Indianapolis.
– Committee on Catholic Education: Bishop George V. Murry of Youngstown, Ohio.
– Committee for Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth: Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia.
When this year’s fall assembly comes to a close, Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond of New Orleans will become secretary of the USCCB. The archbishop was chosen secretary-elect during the 2014 bishops’ assembly. He succeeds the current USCCB secretary, Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain, who is finishing his three-year term.
The other USCCB officers are: Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, president; and Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, vice president.
Also several chairmen-elect chosen last year will become committee chairmen at the end of this assembly:
– Communications: Bishop Christopher J. Coyne of Burlington, Vermont.
– Cultural Diversity in the Church: Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller of San Antonio.
– National Collections: Archbishop Thomas J. Rodi of Mobile, Alabama.
– Pro-Life Activities: Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York.