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Friday, January 06, 2012

Local Boy Does Good

THE MOST REVEREND Timothy Michael Dolan, Archbishop of New York, will soon be made a Cardinal. Dolan was born in Saint Louis, Missouri, to the late Robert Dolan, and Shirley (née Radcliffe) Dolan, and is the oldest of five children. His father was an aircraft engineer at McDonnell Aircraft Corporation. Timothy said that he wanted to be a priest for as long as he can remember.

Dolan grew up in Saint Louis County. He spent his infancy in Maplewood, and later moved with his family to Ballwin, where they attended Holy Infant Church. He attended high school at St. Louis Preparatory Seminary South and then Cardinal Glennon College, both in Shrewsbury. He continued his formal education in Rome.

Dolan was ordained to the priesthood in 1976, and served as associate pastor of Immacolata Parish in Richmond Heights, and eventually was ordained bishop in 2001, serving as auxiliary in Saint Louis, then as Archbishop of Milwaukee and then of New York. More of his biography can be seen here.

The word ‘cardinal’ comes from the Latin adjective cardinalis, which according to the Lewis and Short Dictionary means “Of or pertaining to a door-hinge” and so by analogy, “that on which something turns, depends, i. e. principal, chief” such as the cardinal points on the compass, the cardinal virtues, or cardinal numbers. The term became applied to the senior priests of major churches; the church of England still uses the title ‘cardinal’ in this manner. In the same way, we speak of a priest becoming incardinated into a diocese; that is, he becomes subject to the principal cleric of a local church. In secular terms, the Cardinals are the princes of the Church, because they are the electors of the Pope.

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