As Whispers in the Loggia hinted, and as I speculated yesterday, the soon-to-be-bishop of Birmingham is a fella named Baker: Robert Baker of Charleston.

Rocco once again has the scoop:

As bishop of Charleston, Baker has presided over rapid growth; thanks to a combination of Rust Belt transplants and adult converts, the Palmetto State’s Catholic population boomed by almost 40% (to 175,000+) during his tenure, and dedicating new or expanded churches, schools and parish facilities has been both the imperative and the norm. Further highlighting the church’s new prominence in the diocese – whose 1820 founding marked American Catholicism’s entrance into the Deep South – last month the bishop ordained the diocese’s largest class of priestly ordinands since 1956. The liturgy was held in a convention center to accommodate the number of well-wishers, and a class of similar size is in the pipeline for next year.

On the surface, given Birmingham’s assets of fewer priests and faithful than the diocese Baker leaves behind, the move would seem a curious one. However, the long haul to this morning’s appointment has, at long last, yielded a nominee well-seasoned both in the episcopacy and the burgeoning church of the “Bible Belt.” What’s more, Rome’s choice looks set to receive a warm welcome from the hometown product that’s made the “Magic City” the unlikely home of the nation’s, and possibly the world’s, most influential outlet of Catholic communication.

It’s become the stuff of legend that, 45 years ago, a Poor Clare nun from Baker’s home state came to Alabama with a vision… and nothing was ever really the same again; Birmingham is, of course, home to that vision’s famous fruits – the Eternal Word Television Network and its many offshoots.

And how will be the new bishop get along with his neighbors at EWTN? Swimmingly, it seems, particularly when it comes to broadcasting the “extraordinary rite” of the mass (a.k.a., the Latin rite) :

It’s worth noting that Baker had granted ample provision for public celebrations of the “extraordinary rite” of the Mass in Charleston well before last month’s Summorum Pontificum.

Baker comes to his new post as a friend of the network; he’s been featured in its programming (including plaudits for a historical novel he recently co-wrote) and authored a 2004 book alongside a longtime EWTN favorite, Fr Benedict Groeschel, the founder of the New York-based Franciscan Friars of the Renewal.

Check Whispers for the rest — and a jolly hat tip to Rocco, as always, for being first out of the starting gate.