[caption id="attachment_69097" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Fr. Charles Brown has been made an archbishop."]
Just in time for St. Patrick's Day, there will be another red hat in St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York with Archbishop Timothy Dolan set to be elevated to the College of Cardinals by Pope Benedict at a Vatican ceremony next month.
"I am honored, humbled and grateful ... but, let's be frank. This is not about Timothy Dolan. "This is an honor from the Holy Father to the Archdiocese of New York and to all our cherished friends and neighbors who call this great community home," said Dolan when the news broker last week.
"It's as if Pope Benedict is putting the red hat on top of the Empire State Building, or the Statue of Liberty, or on home plate at Yankee Stadium, or on the spires of St. Patrick's Cathedral," he said.
Dolan is the latest presiding archbishop at St. Patrick's to be made Cardinal. His predecessor, Cardinal Edward Egan, is still based there and though formally retired from his former post is still a highly visible presence.
Egan, for example, attended the recent announcement of the 2012 St. Patrick's Day parade grand marshal at Irish Consulate.
Traditionally, St. Patrick's has been assigned to leading Irish American clerics. Indeed, it is something of a last bastion in this regard.
Another Irish American elevated to the College of Cardinals last week was
Archbishop Edwin O'Brien, Grand Master of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre and the former archbishop of Baltimore, was another of the 22 new cardinals named by Pope Benedict.
Meanwhile, the Vatican also announced that the new papal nuncio to Ireland, Monsignor Charles Brown, who is Irish American, has been ordained an archbishop.
Brown, 52, was ordained a priest in St Patrick's Cathedral and was based for a time at St. Brendan's parish in the Bronx.
"I am very pleased to be in Rome today, the Feast of the Epiphany of Our Lord Jesus Christ, with Cardinal Desmond Connell, Bishop Noel Treanor and Bishop Donal McKeown, to attend the episcopal ordination of Monsignor Charles Brown, the recently appointed apostolic nuncio to Ireland," said Ireland's Cardinal Sean Brady.
"I particularly wish to express my gratitude to the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, for appointing Archbishop Brown to Ireland and I wish him many blessings in his new ministry.
"I am confident that he will do excellent work in both forging strong and fruitful diplomatic links between Ireland and the Holy See to the mutual advantage of both States, and, in the promotion of renewal of the Church in Ireland."
Archbishop Brown's arrival comes at a time of strained relations between the Vatican and Irish government, due in large part to the child abuse scandals.
The Irish government recently decided to end the practice of having an ambassador to the Vatican based in Rome and will instead be represented by a diplomat based in Ireland.
