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Archbishop Dolan: New Face of the Church?
Influential Catholic leader speaks about church's response to sex abuse scandal, his mission and more
The past decade has been devastating for the Roman Catholic Church - seemingly endless cases of sex abuse by priests, and bishops who turned a blind eye to it. And there were multi-billion dollar payouts to victims, all of which led to a steady loss of the faithful.
One man the American church hopes can change all that is Timothy Dolan, for two years now the archbishop of New York, the nation's most prominent pulpit. He has also been called the "American pope," after his election to head the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
His
mission - as he sees it - is to change a perception of the church that
ranges from negative to irrelevant. He wants to see the old church made
new: zero tolerance of wayward priests and an emphasis on what he calls
the most pure and noble experience Catholicism offers.
What does "America's Pope" think?
Gay marriage? Female priests? Archbishop Timothy Dolan, the most
important American Catholic today, explains the church's reasoning.
To accomplish his mission, his main weapon is that indefinable quality called charm.
Dolan is hard to miss: this burly, overweight, cherubic Irish-American charges through life like a holy bulldozer, his brow gleaming, hands reaching.
It's a laugh a minute, hugging, glad-handing and backslapping everyone from street cops to big-time donors.
He's a tireless promoter of all things Catholic, and always ready to refuel.
"Did you always have, dare I say, the gift of the gab?" correspondent Morley Safer asked.
"Yes, according to my mom, yes. You couldn't shut me up. You know, the Italians have a great saying that 'Hey, you have to make gnocchi with the dough you got.' Well, God knows I got the dough. Whatever dough God gave me, that's the gnocchi I'll make," the archbishop replied.