John Allen skriver om utnevnelsen av biskop Blase Cupich til ny erkebiskop i Chicago – andre skriver at dette kanskje hadde med å gjøre at Cupich kjenner erkebiskopen/kardinalen av Boston, O’Malley, og denne kardinalen er en av pave Frans’ spesielt utvalgte rådgivere. Men han skriver også om hva slag biskoper pave Frans ønsker:
… by now we have a fairly clear picture of what Francis wants.
First, he wants moderates rather than ideologues, men who will defend church teaching but whose first instinct isn’t political confrontation, and who keep lines of communication open with all camps.
Second, he wants bishops of the “Social Gospel,” meaning leaders with a special concern for the poor, for immigrants, and for those at what he’s called the “existential peripheries” of the world.
Third, he wants men who see themselves as pastors rather than bureaucrats or diplomats, shepherds who, in his memorable image, “carry the smell of their sheep” because they’re close to the ordinary people they’re called to serve.
By all accounts, that’s what Francis has got in Cupich, an Omaha native whose previous job was as the bishop of Spokane in Washington.