I missed this when it ran the other day, but this Times piece on Archbishop Dolan zeroes in on part of his appeal — and why he just might be very good news for vocations:

The big recruiters talk about him as if he were future Hall-of-Fame material — the kind you build organizations around. They talk about his “skill set,” the leadership qualities that make the young ones double their commitments.

They speak of Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of Milwaukee, the gregarious, football-coach-size prelate whom the Vatican named on Monday to take the helm of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York.

They hope he helps attract more men to the priesthood.

“He’s a professional extrovert, a banterer, a sports fanatic,” said the Rev. Edwin H. Obermiller, director of vocations for the Congregation of Holy Cross at the University of Notre Dame. “He knows how to talk to young men.”

In his first foray after being introduced as New York’s next archbishop at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Monday, Archbishop Dolan visited St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers — where three diocesan priests are to be ordained in May, compared with the 30 or 40 who graduated each year in the 1960s — and promised to make recruitment one of his top priorities.

The depth and difficulty of the struggle to overcome a decades-long and nationwide priest shortage can be measured by how church officials define success.

Three graduates from St. Joseph’s this year is considered a disappointing number. On Monday, Cardinal Edward M. Egan referred to the lagging ordinations there as one of the chief disappointments of his nine-year tenure as New York archbishop.

But at St. Francis de Sales Seminary in Milwaukee, where the rector, the Rev. Donald J. Hying, credits Bishop Dolan’s “radiant joy” and “charismatic nature” with bringing new vigor to recruitment efforts, the graduating class this year will be six.

“We haven’t ordained six priests since 1992,” Father Hying said. He said the seminary expected to graduate “five or six each year for the next few years.”

Recruiting young men to make the commitment to become priests is a complex process that involves guidance by priests as well as the self-explorations of the candidates, said the Rev. Luke M. Sweeney, director of vocations at St. Joseph’s. An important if intangible factor is how a candidate imagines himself in the future, a priest in full — and his bishop can be an important role model.

“Whenever he met with them, Cardinal Egan did an excellent job of connecting with our seminarians,” Father Sweeney said. But Archbishop Dolan brings “a different skill set” to that meeting.

“Each man brings to the job his own abilities, and Bishop Dolan is obviously blessed with a particular ability to reach out and inspire potential recruits,” Father Sweeney said.

On Monday evening, after a vespers service at St. Joseph’s chapel in which Archbishop Dolan addressed the seminarians as “the future of the priesthood I love,” many of them stood around gaping with what seemed a mixture of curiosity and awe as he held court in a scrum of television cameras and sound booms, answering questions from reporters.

The bishop laughed a lot. He spoke glowingly of the Green Bay Packers, the Mets, the Yankees, hot dogs and jelly doughnuts. At one point he shouted over reporters’ heads: “Hey, when’s opening day at Yankee Stadium?”

One seminarian, standing with his chin resting on his closed hand, smiled broadly when asked by a reporter what he thought of the new guy. “They asked us not to make comments,” he said, turning to walk down a hall to a dinner in honor of Cardinal Egan and his successor.

“But I like him.”

There’s more, of course, at the link.

PHOTO: by Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times