In perhaps the worst-kept secret in recent church history, Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan was named to succeed Cardinal Edward Egan in New York. Dolan confessed that he’d known for 9 or 10 days, which is a long time to keep ecclesiastical tongues from wagging. Why such a long lag time? Usually these big appointments have to be bang-bang type ops, otherwise the word gets out. But communications–and episcopal appointments–have not been the Vatican’s strong suit of late. Rome was thrown by l’affaire Williamson et al, and the would-be auxiliary bishop of Linz, who was channeling Pat Robertson, in the original German. But they had to get it done before Lent–penitential seasons are not a great time to celebrate new bishops–and Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) would be a bit too celebratory. So it had to be Monday.

Is Dolan everything we’d hoped and dreamed for? That will likely depend on what you are looking for in an “Archbishop of the Capital of the World,” as JPII once greeted the late, and beloved, Cardinal John O’Connor. Not to beat a dead horse, but Egan was no O’Connor–though O’Connor left his successor in an ugly financial ditch that it has taken nine years to get out of–and so most anyone would look good by comparison. (Okay, if you like horse meat, here’s my New York Magazine profile of Egan when he turned 75–and his priests, as well as the parishioners, were looking for him to leave ASAP. Oh, and in my list of front-runners, I called Dolan “the Establishment candidate”; I meant that in a good way, of course.)

And Tim Dolan is no Ed Egan. (Nor is he Rembert Weakland, the scandal-tarred liberal he replaced in Milwaukee in 2002.) Dolan likes Miller beer, Jamesons whisky, and food. “I’ve already learned how to order a hot dog from the cart outside the cathedral,” he said at today’s press conference after maorning mass at St. Pat’s. He doesn’t speak Spanish as well as he’ll need to, but as he once told a radio station, “I can read menus in 12 languages.”

Dolan likes to kibbitz about baseball–he threw out the first pitch for the Brewers, but now seems to be enamored of the Yankees, which is Strike One in my book. “Fond” of the Mets, sez he. Hmph. He likes “meat-and-potatoes” Catholics, and priests, and the media–well, he tolerates us well–and those are three groups Egan did not do well with.

There’s lots of coverage out there, starting with The Daily News, the “hometown newspaper.” My recommended reading list starts with:

–Gary Stern’s wall-to-wall coverage at his blog and in the Westchester Journal-News.  

—Yours truly in The Daily News: “He’s extremely friendly in a way you don’t associate with church leaders.”  

–Michael Powell’s excellent NYTimes profile, which shows the benefits of having a heads up. Money quote: A woman inquired if he wanted milk with his coffee. “I’d prefer a bit of Jameson’s,” he said. “But milk will do.”

–Longtime St. Louis religion writer and best-in-show, Pat Rice, has a great roundup that displays her deep knowledge of Dolan and his hometown. Best bit of bio:

Dolan was born in St. Louis. He is the eldest of Shirley Radcliffe Dolan and the late Robert Dolan’s five children – three boys and two girls. In 1954, when he was 4, the family moved from Maplewood to the growing suburb of Ballwin. One day as he was leaving Mass with his maternal grandmother, he asked her what the man in black was called. As soon as he repeated the word priest, he said that wanted to be a priest. “I can never remember a time I didn’t want to be a priest,” he said. 

–For some dissenting voices (as well as a strong overview of Dolan’s Milwaukee career) check out the Journal-Sentinel’s piece, which includes these insights, running counter to the general aura of good feeling:

“Archbishop Dolan, like most bishops, has a my-way-or-the-highway mentality,” said Nancy Moews, coordinator of the local chapter of Voice of the Faithful. “His reign has produced assaults on freedom of thought, speech and the primacy of personal conscience.”

Dan Maguire, a Marquette University professor of moral theology and former priest, called Dolan “a back-slapping autocrat.”

“Under that affable exterior is an arrogant and steely conservative,” said Maguire, who was rebuked by Dolan in 2006 after he sent a letter to U.S. bishops suggesting Catholics may rightfully dissent on issues of abortion and same-sex unions, and that bishops don’t have the last word on moral debate.

–And SNAP, the leading survivors support and advocacy group, is blistering in its criticism.  

—UPDATE: As for how Dolan might fare under the somewhat more powerful glare of the NY media klieglights, Charles Cosimano in the combox below has the Question/Quote of the Day: “Will he be the ecclesiastical equivalent of Brett Favre?” Ouch!

—In the latest issue (sweet timing, gang) of Commonweal, Dolan, who heads Catholic Relief Services, writes about the crisis of skyrocketing food prices and the challenge to American Catholics in the context of the Lenten season nearly upon us:

“It is tempting to turn inward during an economic crisis, to let our material anxieties blind us to those whose plight is far worse than our own. Now more than ever, though, we must ensure that the needs of the poorest of the poor are on the agenda of our government and in the minds of every American Catholic, that the poor receive the compassion and assistance our faith calls us to bring them.”

–A roundup of quotable Dolan from the Milwaukee media here. Best bite: “You’re asking, maybe, if there’s any difference between Archbishop Weakland and me? And there is a big one, about 50 pounds right off the bat.”

–At America‘s blog, Michael Sean Winters, who has known Dolan for years, is exultant–and funny about the man many of us first met when he was the rector of the North American College (the elite seminary) in Rome, and a media go-to guy for English-language journos.

I have never seen Archbishop Dolan that he didn’t have his arm around someone. We first met in Rome when, coincidentally enough, I was working on an article about Cardinal John O’Connor. Dolan was hosting a reception in his apartment at the North American College for Thanksgiving Day. Every American Catholic in the Eternal City seemed to be crammed into the rector’s living room. Cocktails flowed, cigars were lit, and the sense of loneliness one has when celebrating a national holiday abroad was dispersed thoroughly by Dolan’s hospitality.

 –Winters says the last time he saw Dolan, in Washington last April for the papal visit, Dolan had Rocco Palmo, the diminutive clerical gossip-maven extraordinare, in his grasp. (Well, to be fair, most everyone is diminutive next to Dolan.) Rocco’s “Whispers” coverage shouts, and the best worth-a-thousand-words picture: “Change we can believe in.”

 –From New York Magazine online, appreciation, but a good question about another Irishman in an increasingly brown church: Roughly one-third of Catholics in the archdiocese are Spanish-speaking — and Dolan’s mastery of the language ends at “hola” and “como estas.” Pope Benedict, where’s the Latin love?