Church Historian Named to Gotham

This morning it was announced that Pope Benedict XVI had appointed Milwaukee’s Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan to be the next Archbishop of New York. The Archbishop brings an impressive background with him: Secretary to the Apostolic Nuncio, Rector of the North American College, Auxiliary Bishop of St. Louis, head of an archdiocese. But not everyone may know that that the next head of Gotham Catholicism is also a highly accomplished Church Historian. Archbishop Dolan received his doctorate in Church History from The Catholic University of America. The subject of his dissertation was Archbishop Edwin V. O’Hara (1881-1956), Bishop of Kansas City and founder of the National Catholic Rural Life Conference. In 1992 The Catholic University of America Press published his dissertation under the title “Some Seed Fell on Good Ground”: The Life of Edwin V. O’Hara. The book is currently out of print, but somehow I have a hunch we might see a reprint.