Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York reaches mandatory retirement age

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York turned 75 on Thursday, hitting the mandatory age to submit his resignation as head of the Archdiocese of New York to Pope Francis — though he won’t be leaving immediately.

Dolan could remain in the high-visibility post for several years — or depart within weeks or months. On his radio program Tuesday, Dolan noted the average time to replace the head of a Roman Catholic diocese or archdiocese is six to eight months.

Some bishops have remained in place until age 80.

"It could be months, it could be years, before the Holy Father appoints a replacement. We have no idea," said Joseph Zwilling, a spokesperson for the Archdiocese of New York.

A charismatic orator

Dolan, elevated from archbishop to cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012, came to New York from Milwaukee, where he served as archbishop and earned a reputation as a skilled and charismatic orator. 

That ability to connect with the faithful only grew once he arrived in New York. He has a talk show on SiriusXM's Catholic Channel. He's hosted the quadrennial staple of the presidential campaign calendar, the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner — on stage amid the bright lights and big names, shepherding the festivities with a recipe of traditional prayer, piety and a dash of timing that would make a Borscht Belt comic proud.

Since coming to New York in 2009, it has not been uncommon to see Dolan and another clergy member or two, strolling along the Fifth Avenue sidewalk outside the Manhattan headquarters of his dominion — St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Dolan's oratory talents, and appreciation of the moment, were both on display Jan. 20 when he gave the invocation at President Donald Trump’s inauguration.

"Without God our efforts turn to ashes," the cardinal told the crowd packed into the Capitol Rotunda, summoning a quote from Martin Luther King Jr., on whose birthday Trump's second inauguration fell.

Defending the church

Days later, Dolan clashed with the new Trump administration. Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic, accused the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops of resettling immigrants and refugees partly because the church makes money from it through government grants.

Dolan called the comments "scurrilous," "very nasty" and "untrue." The Catholic Church, he said, actually loses money caring for immigrants but sees the work as part of its Christian mission.

On Tuesday, he told the audience for his SiriusXM talk show, "Conversation with Cardinal Dolan," that while he doesn't know when his service as archbishop will end, he is at peace with stepping down.

Dolan, noting that when he does leave, it will mean the end for official appointments or administrative duties overseeing one of the largest Catholic archdioceses or dioceses in the nation, declared, "“Yippee!"

About what comes next, the cardinal said he wasn't sure. He mentioned teaching at a university, traveling, reading more and preaching at retreats as favored future pursuits.

"I’ll do more of that," he said, referring to the retreats. "I can’t do it now cause it kind of takes a while to prepare it, and then you’re gone for a week. But when I’m retired, you know, I can do that more often."

A prime post

The seat in New York is a key post in the Roman Catholic Church nationwide. While the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is officially the head of bishops in this country, in practice, the archbishop of New York fills the role partly because New York "is the media capital of the world," said the Rev. Thomas Reese, an analyst at Religion News Service, an independent news agency.

An ability to communicate like Dolan is an attribute Reese said he believes Pope Francis will look for in the Archdiocese of New York's next leader. He will also need to be a good administrator to handle the sprawling archdiocese, Reese added.

Analysts also expect Dolan’s replacement to be generally aligned with Pope Francis’s priorities including on migrants, the environment and the poor. One obvious choice is nearby, Cardinal Joseph Tobin of the Archdiocese of Newark, Reese said. But Tobin has indicated that at 72, he is happy where he is, according to Reese.