\n<\/p>\n
After less than three years in Buckeye Nation, Brennan succeeds one of the bench\u2019s most formidable players, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, who reached the retirement age of 75 in June 2019. Arguably the \u201ccentral casting\u201d image of a Brooklyn prelate \u2013 down to a hard-charging style that\u2019s seen him widely referred to at home as \u201cThe Czar\u201d \u2013 today\u2019s move comes a month after DiMarzio was cleared by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of two allegations of sexual abuse dating to the 1970s in his native Newark, making him the only US prelate to date to emerge unscathed from an investigation under Vos estis lux mundi<\/i>, the 2019 norms for cases of direct abuse or mishandling of cases by bishops. Nick being Nick, however, another piece of his final lap is an even bigger point of pride: never one to shy away from war (and the louder it is, the better), late last year DiMarzio took his longtime nemesis, now-former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, to the Supreme Court, winning a unanimous \u201cshadow docket\u201d ruling that overturned the state\u2019s pandemic capacity limits on church attendance as a violation of religious freedom.<\/p>\n
Well beyond the transition at hand, the Brooklyn church itself has undergone a remarkable evolution over DiMarzio\u2019s 18-year tenure, headlined by a torrent of gentrification that\u2019s upended long-standing ethnic bastions with a stratospheric infusion of wealth and development, and the tensions that come with it. At the same time, while the diocese\u2019s long history as the ultimate nexus of the American \u201cmelting pot\u201d \u2013 which saw Brooklyn launch the global church\u2019s first diocesan-level ministry for immigrants 50 years ago \u2013 has continued unabated, the reality of African, Asian and Caribbean emigres overtaking the earlier waves of Europeans and Hispanics has put new demands on the ecclesial talent pool, all as the aging infrastructure of the \u201ccity of churches\u201d makes the solvency of its famously complex and sprawling apparatus an ever more urgent concern. Yet on the whole, much as the diocese has traditionally prided itself on being the church of \u201cthe peripheries\u201d in the nation\u2019s largest city well before Francis popularized the term, if anything, today\u2019s Brooklyn and Queens is more at the center of New York power and consequence than at any time in living memory, a clout underscored by the pending handoff of the mayor’s office from one Brooklynite to another.<\/p>\n
Given the host of changes and challenges facing the outer boroughs, the Brooklyn succession could\u2019ve been handled any number of ways. In that light, it\u2019s telling that Francis has opted for a very comfortable choice, both in terms of the administrative and pastoral dynamics that make up what might just be the most unique diocese in the US church.<\/p>\n
Beyond having spent his life in the neighboring diocese of Rockville Centre, Brennan has already lived in his new charge, having attended the Vincentian-run St John\u2019s University in Queens. Marked out early as a rising star, he was vicar-general of Long Island\u2019s 1.5 million-member fold by 40, then raised to the bench as Bishop William Murphy\u2019s hand-picked auxiliary a day after turning 50. In the context of Brooklyn, while anyone taking DiMarzio\u2019s place would inevitably be seen as an octane-lowering choice in terms of personality, Brennan in particular is decidedly not a headline machine. Nonetheless, his considerable skillset in terms of nuts-and-bolts governance has long been admired by Francis\u2019 current crop of hat-makers, so much so that, until now, his name was atop the credible field of contenders to succeed Cardinal Se\u00e1n O\u2019Malley OFM Cap. as archbishop of Boston when the handover of the nation\u2019s fourth-largest diocese is eventually broached. (Though O\u2019Malley and DiMarzio turned 75 in the same month, to date, the Boston process has not yet been initiated.)<\/p>\n
Once he takes the reins at 310 Prospect Park West, Brennan\u2019s familiarity with the turf will come even more in handy as he inherits an outsized crucible of issues that border on the existential. For starters, as New York state’s two-year \u201cwindow\u201d suspending the statute of limitations on sexual abuse cases closed last month, only now will its dioceses face the brunt of addressing the largest flood of litigation the US church has seen since the eruption of the scandals. Already, however, while four of the New York province’s eight sees \u2013 led by Rockville Centre \u2013 have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Brooklyn has not yet made that call despite an even larger caseload; just on his own, the celebrated plaintiffs\u2019 attorney Jeffrey Anderson has lodged over 700 suits against the diocese under the Child Victims Act.<\/p>\n
Bankruptcy or not, the resolution of the crush of cases \u2013 for context, a larger docket than that which the archdiocese of Los Angeles paid $660 million to settle in 2007 \u2013 will determine the extent of the fiscal crunch which, in turn, will shape the contours of Brennan\u2019s tenure. And that picture plays into the other looming crisis on deck… or one of them: the challenge of broad-scale pastoral planning, which has only been tackled at the edges to date, with 30 parishes (of an original 216) slimmed out in the first decade of DiMarzio\u2019s tenure. The need for a more concrete and diocese-wide approach is underscored by the recent development of several Brooklyn pastors now being assigned to two parishes at once. Even beyond the basics, meanwhile, this month\u2019s historic flooding of much of the diocese by the remnants of Hurricane Ida portends a future of tackling the fallout of increasing, and far more damaging, natural disasters, with the diocese’s coastal location and population density exacerbating the effects of climate change.<\/p>\n
In accord with the norms of the canons, Brennan must be installed within two months. With today\u2019s move now opening Columbus, four US dioceses stand vacant, and another 12 led by (arch)bishops serving past the retirement age.\n<\/p>\n
SVILUPPO:<\/b> With DiMarzio hailing his successor as “a perfect choice,” Brennan’s installation has been set for Tuesday, 30 November in St Joseph’s Co-Cathedral<\/a>, the gentrifying “downtown” parish which became the diocese’s de facto<\/i> seat in 2013.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, even before today’s 10am press conference, the incoming bishop issued a soothing first message to his new presbyterate, the state of its morale cited as a key priority over the course of the process:\u00a0<\/p>\n