Priest tapped to be chaplain for House of Representatives

He would be the second Catholic priest to hold the job.  Details, from USA TODAY:

The Rev. Patrick Conroy, a Jesuit priest and former chaplain at Georgetown University, is Speaker John Boehner’s choice to be the next chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives.

If formally elected, Conroy would become the second Roman Catholic priest to tend to the House flock. He would succeed the Rev. Daniel Coughlin, whose own appointment in 2000 was marked by an unusual level of partisan acrimony and charges of bias.

Boehner said he consulted with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi about Conroy’s appointment, which will be formally submitted to the House for consideration later this month.

The speaker said in a statement that Conroy, 60, has shown a “dedication to God’s work, commitment to serving others and experience working with people of faith from all traditions.”

Conroy, a Jesuit ordained in 1983, has done stints as a parish priest in his native Washington state, where his parishoners included the people of the Colville Indian Reservation and the Spokane Indian Reservation.