Staff Report

Archbishop of Cincinnati Dennis M. Schnurr is among those nominated as candidates for president and vice president when U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) elects the next president and vice president of USCCB during the bishops’ annual fall General Assembly, Nov. 11-14, at the Baltimore Waterfront Marriott Hotel. 

The president and vice president will be elected from a slate of 10 candidates nominated by the bishops. The slate of candidates includes Archbishop Schnurr; Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Ky; Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond of New Orleans; Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, OFM Cap., of Philadelphia; Bishop Blase J. Cupich of Spokane, Washington; Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston; Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles; Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore; Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron of Detroit and Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami.

The president and vice president are elected to three-year terms, which will begin at the conclusion of the meeting. Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York and Archbishop Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, complete their terms as president and vice president, respectively, at that time.

USCCB by-laws provide that the election of the president will take place first from among the list of 10 candidates. Following the election of the president by a simple majority vote, the vice president is elected from the remaining nine candidates. In either election, if a candidate does not receive more than half of the votes cast on the first ballot, a second vote is taken. If a third round of voting is necessary, that ballot is a run-off between the top two vote getters from the second ballot.

At the meeting, the bishops will also vote for the chairman of the USCCB Committee on Catholic Education, the chairmen-elect of five other USCCB committees and new board members of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc. (CLINIC) and Catholic Relief Services (CRS).

Additional information about the meeting’s agenda is available online at the USCCB website.

Coverage of the bishops’ meeting is open to credentialed media. Sessions open to the media will be Monday, Nov. 11, and Tuesday, Nov.12. There will be media conferences after all open sessions.