Installation to blend rituals, celebration

NEW ARCHBISHOP -- Most Reverend Timothy M. Dolan will be installed as 10th archbishop of Milwaukee on Aug. 28 at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist. (Photo courtesy of St. Louis Review)

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MILWAUKEE -- There will be rituals, readings and recitations. Solemnity and celebration.

There will be processions, with everyone from cardinals to school kids, two-by-two.

There will be a multitude of Masses, receptions, picnics, hugs, handshakes and healing outreach to all. No doubt, a few Irish blessings will be proclaimed.

And there's not one thing the 10th archbishop of the Milwaukee Archdiocese wants to convey to Catholics in southeastern Wisconsin through his installation ceremony and many events surrounding it. There are three: prayer, presence, and friendship.

Friendship will be evident in the warmth of family and community gatherings, Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan promised in a recent interview. Presence will become clear not only through the installation Mass and evening prayers preceding it, but in the "octave and more" of celebrations throughout the 10-county archdiocese, he added.

"I want all the Catholic community, the diocesan leaders, the civic leaders, the interfaith community, I want them all to see me and hear me. And I want to see and hear them. It will mean so much to me to look out and see the people wherever I do," Dolan said, with almost breathless anticipation.

Numbers of note • More than 2,700 invitations sent for Tuesday's Solemn Vespers Vigil of Welcome and Wednesday's Installation Liturgy; both events and the receptions which will follow are invitation-only. • Dolan's personal list of invitees included 260 invitations to friends and relatives, and 318 invitations to North American College colleagues. • The entire U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops was invited, numbering about 400. • Seven cardinals attended Dolan's installation as auxiliary bishop in St. Louis last year. At least the same number is expected at next week's installation. • 1,500 in total are expected to attend the installation; a maximum of 987 will be seated in the cathedral and its day chapel; more than 300 attendees seated in the atrium will view the ceremonies via large-screen TV broadcast. The apse will be used by musicians and choir members. • Four Milwaukee network TV channels are expected to carry the installation Mass in its entirety as a live news telecast. Cable channel 41 is expected to telecast the evening vespers. • Following the octave of Masses and receptions throughout the archdiocese -- beginning Friday, Aug. 30, at St. John Vianney, Brookfield through Sunday, Sept. 8, at the Mater Christi Chapel and Cousins Center, Dolan will continue his travels with plans to visit at least one parish for Mass each Sunday in the coming months. • And into 2003 ... the celebration will continue with a "Pilgrimage of Prayer and Praise to the City of SS Peter and Paul." The June 26-July 3, 2003, trip to Rome, available to the public, will be led by Dolan. The archbishop is expected to receive his pallium from the pope in ceremonies on the feast of SS Peter and Paul, June 29, 2003.

The prayers will take many forms, as well, he said. "We'll pray in praise and thanksgiving. I'm certainly grateful, and I'm hoping the people praying with me are grateful that the Lord is sending a new shepherd. I'll be praying for help; I need it. Yet, all of our attention will be on the Lord, not on me. He will be the focus of our prayer and worship."

Archbishop involved in planning events

Since his appointment as Milwaukee Archbishop June 25, Dolan has been vitally involved in planning all aspects of the installation events. The ceremonies include the Wednesday, Aug. 28, installation Mass, on the feast of St. Augustine, and Vigil of Welcome vespers the night before, both at St. John the Evangelist Cathedral, Milwaukee. Indeed, Dolan suggested an octave of regional celebrations culminating in a Mass on Sunday, Sept. 8, the feast of the Nativity of Mary, followed by a picnic for all comers at Cousins Center. That suggestion, and details large and small for the events in the coming days have been the focus of an installation team that includes Bishop Richard J. Sklba, archdiocesan administrator; Barbara Anne Cusack, chancellor; Dean Daniels, director of the archdiocesan Office for Prayer & Worship; Jerry Topczewski, archdiocesan director of communications; and many others.

Cusack articulated the significance of a bishop's installation. Through the ceremony, "we are making a connection between the local church and the universal church. There is the link of a papal mandate in the ceremony. The pope has sent a new shepherd to us. We give him (Dolan) the symbols of a shepherd, and he is placed in the cathedra -- his chair -- as part of the liturgical action. He will be taking the seat from which he teaches, sanctifies and governs -- his three-fold mission in the diocese," she said.

Cusack also noted Dolan's inclusive efforts, reaching out with sensitivity across southeastern Wisconsin, even as space limitations require that certain events be invitation-only. The installation ceremonies and other events, she said, "will bring together the richness of liturgy as we've come to celebrate at the cathedral, along with the very personal touch he brings. I think his personality is just going to fill every corner of the cathedral. And he's going out to every corner of the diocese, which I think is a real opportunity for him to touch people personally. This will be his first official teaching moment in the diocese, teaching not just by what he says, but teaching by his very way of being."

Installation ritual dates back to 1600s

The contemporary installation, described in the "Ceremonial of Bishops" liturgical handbook, traces back to the 1600s, according to Daniels. He explained that in the early church clergy and laity of a given diocese would gather in the cathedral and wait in vigil for their new bishop's knock on the door. The new shepherd would literally have just arrived from Rome -- by boat, horse or on foot -- with the pope's mandate of his appointment in hand. The new bishop would be welcomed by the cathedral rector, offered a crucifix, and given holy water to bless himself.

A comparable ritual will take place in the "reception" liturgy next Tuesday. Dolan will knock on the cathedral doors. He will be greeted by Sklba, who also will present Dolan with a crucifix. They will process to the baptismal font, where Dolan will bless himself then proceed with a sprinkling rite in the cathedral. Dolan will preside at the evening vespers service. Sklba will deliver the homily, and retired Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland is expected to attend.

Unusually, the "Our Father" will be chanted in Latin. Dolan is expected to deliver informal remarks as the service ends. A special reverence will honor Mary at the recessional, when Dolan leads the procession into the atrium, stopping at the cathedral's Mary, Mother of the Church statue while "Salve Regina" is sung in Latin.

Archdiocese to donate to area food pantries in Dolan's honor MILWAUKEE -- In a charitable outreach gesture, 10 food pantries and homeless meal programs in southeastern Wisconsin will receive donations from the Milwaukee Archdiocese to support their efforts this month. The gesture by the archdiocese is in honor of Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan upon his Aug. 28 installation in Milwaukee, according to Barbara Anne Cusack, chancellor. According to Bishop Richard J. Sklba, archdiocesan administrator, the gesture is an important symbol that the needs of the poor be recognized in the midst of the many celebrations. The 10 sites receiving donations -- one in each county in the archdiocese -- will be selected by archdiocesan officials. The monies donated will reflect one day's operating expenses for a given site. This type of remembrance is used in other dioceses and is similar to the meal program donations made in the name of Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland upon his installation 25 years ago. According to Cusack, Dolan has asked that any monetary gifts given him on the occasion of his installation be used for Saint Francis Seminary, St. Francis.

Beginning at 2 p.m. the following day the actual installation will take place. Cusack said the "very minimal requirements" for an archbishop's installation are that he presents his "credentials" to the diocese's College of Consultors in the presence of the chancellor. A liturgical context is recommended but not required. The credentials are the papal mandate document, which usually contains wording particular to the incoming archbishop as well as his new diocese, she said.

Papal nuncio will be on hand

Once the musical preludes and lengthy procession -- including selected guests, visiting cardinals, bishops, concelebrating priests, and deacons -- concludes, Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo, papal nuncio, will greet the congregation. The College of Consultors will assemble before the cathedra, where they will be shown the Apostolic Letter with Dolan's credentials. Once they've examined the document, Montalvo will read the letter from the ambo. Once the reading is complete, Dolan is officially archbishop of Milwaukee.

Following what is expected as resounding applause from the assembly, Dolan will then be escorted to his cathedra by Montalvo. Sklba will present the shepherd's crosier to Montalvo, who in turn presents the symbolic staff to Dolan.

Soon after, Cusack's ceremonial role is to formally present parish, Catholic and ecumenical community, and civic leaders to Dolan. This group is expected to include: Fr. David Reith, dean of archdiocesan district three; three randomly selected parish representatives; Christopher Feiereisen, of Dominican High School, and Jesse Marie Nelson-Rowe of Divine Savior Holy Angels High School, representing youth; two elementary school children; Bishop Roger White of the Episcopal Diocese of Milwaukee; Bishop Paul Stumme-Diers of Greater Milwaukee Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America; and Rev. Thomas Bentz, chair of the Milwaukee's Interfaith Conference, among others.

Liturgy 'like any normal weekday Mass'

From there, the liturgy will proceed "like any normal weekday Mass," Daniels said, with a few unusual characteristics. The readings will be delivered in English and Spanish. Dolan will be the homilist. The prayers of the faithful will be "trilingual intercessions" in English, Spanish and Hmong -- the last language a nod to the growing Hmong community in the archdiocese. Ten of the archbishop's nieces will be gift bearers. All archdiocesan and religious order priests have been invited to concelebrate, which could make for a cozy gathering round the altar. And following Communion, given Dolan's request for a Marian devotion at the installation as well as at vespers, an "Ave Maria" is to be sung.

The installation events' liturgical style will follow the Vatican Council II's dictum of "noble simplicity," according to Daniels. "The Milwaukee Archdiocese is known for good celebrations. We follow the rubrics. We encourage participation. Our music is appropriate to cathedral and church settings and we show the cultural diversity of our community." And thus various languages for prayers; songs sung in Latin, Spanish, Swahili, English and a traditional spiritual; a procession to a German instrumental.

Still standing among the many last-minute details is Dolan's request for a prayer said in Polish during the installation. To say nothing of the rehearsals and musical adjustments being made by Michael Batcho and his cathedral choir for Tuesday's vespers, and Jeff Honore and his archdiocesan choir for the installation Mass. Then there are the pre- and post-ceremony meal and reception arrangements for family, friends, invited guests -- those who have received the more than 2,700 invitations sent out for the Aug. 27-28 events.

And perhaps Dolan and all involved in the events have one thing in the back of their prayerful minds for those dates and a few others in the coming weeks: the presence of no rain.