Vacant Sees in the USA

I was looking through the list of Vacant Sees in the United States and found out that there are only 7 diocese without a bishop.

1) Saint Thomas, American Virgin Islands Diocese has been vacant since Jan 30, 2007.
2) New Ulm, Minnesota Diocese has been vacant since Apr. 24, 2007.
3) Knoxville, Tennessee Diocese has been vacant since Jun. 12, 2007.
4) Juneau, Alaska Diocese has been vacant since Nov. 20, 2007.
5) Green Bay, Wisconsin has been vacant since Jul. 18, 2007.
6) Charleston, South Carolina Diocese has been vacant since Aug 14, 2007.
7) Biloxi, Mississippi Diocese has been vacant since Apr 2, 2008.

I was surprised to find that the diocese to which I belong (New Ulm, MN) has been open the second longest in the USA. I hope that means we are on the top of the list to get a new bishop.

The Holy Father has filled 10 vacant sees since January 2007. I excluded those appointments that took place immediately upon the retirment of a bishop because those sees were not really vacant. Those 10 sees were open an average of 19 months. The shortest vacancy was Des Moines, open only 12 months. The longest vacancy was Lake Charles, La open a whopping 24 months.

If we use those numbers we should expect a new Bishop in New Ulm around November 2008, but might be as early as July 2008, or as late as April 2009.

Now the next question is who? Up until this week, I liked Bp. Richard Pates, Axillary Bp. Form St. Paul/Minneapolis. The Holy Father sent him to be Bishop of Des Moines, IA this last week so now I'll have to do some more research.

Join me in praying that the Holy Father will soon select a Bishop for the Diocese of New Ulm.

NOTE: Data for this post comes from http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/