Dear Nuncio

Can we please have our own Archbishop now?

Now that Cardinal Wuerl has a head larger than Mount Rushmore and would like his carved there, we need another Washington, DC Archbishop. Just for DC-all of it.The Archdiocese of Washington covers Metropolitan Washington, DC (which has more people in it than the US States of Wyoming and around as much as Vermont) and all the Maryland suburbs up until the Baltimore Archdiocese. It is HUGE- and it is not fair.
If you have an Archbishop whose whole schtick is he's for Catholic schools, it excludes the enormous population of single adults who mostly live in downtown DC. When people marry they tend to go to the suburbs to get more land and cheaper schools (the city good ones are private for the most part and expensive.) They start working more in the suburbs or have long commutes-they have suburban property tax issues and deal with a host of things that need a different sort of attention.
The Archbishop of 'Washington, DC" who might just as well be called the Archbishop of Potomac -Bethesda-Chevy Chase, actually makes a ceremonial appearance at 'his' downtown Cathedral of Saint Matthews only about four or five times a year for holiday and special occasion Masses. That's it. I guarantee you he does not even know the name of the 70+ year old Sacrestan who does pretty much everything to get a Mass ready there. I know he can't tell you who three quarters of the lectors are there. He wouldn't recognize them if they walked up to him. The staff there pretty much function without having to pay him much mind (except the Monsignor whom I hope gets some help from him.)
People with families, kids, have a totally different orientation and lifestyle than those without-those DC students, young professionals, single adults, hard working hard traveling folks often have a different orientation than the plopped stuck in the suburbs folks. It isn't that they are trying to stay single, it's that they are trying to survive in a big city which has its own serious challenges-like affordable housing.
It is not fair for the "Archbishops Appeal" to go in huge numbers towards subsidizing catholic schools (elementary-grade schools) when they are for the most part largely in the suburbs and single people don't use them.
The suburbs tend to be wealthier on balance (if you include land in asset profiles certainly) and they tend to be families with multiple breadwinners in a household, or if not, people making larger salaries to support it. There are decidedly different demographic features to the people living in the burbs than those in the city- the challenges are quite different. The needs are different. There have been huge numbers of sociological studies on all of this that I need not go into here.

The Catholics in the city feel neglected, ignored, short-changed and ripped off. We need an Archbishop who has a clue about folks living inside the city-not just the really impoverished clients of Catholic Charities in Anacostia, but hard working people in the city who would be more church going if they felt the church were more for them and they were not subsidizing the churches in the wealthy suburbs. Not everyone wants to move to Bethesda-Chevy Chase.

We need an Archbishop who actually makes appearances regularly in downtown DC.--Like every month. There are beautiful churches there- lots of them. Historic registry churches- Perhaps we could get an Archbishop who knows a few Sacristan names downtown.

It is time with the population explosion in and around DC to carve another Archdiocese. DC has Catholic University, Georgetown, and the Shrine- (which could use more budgetary attention I am told) Saint Matthews Cathedral, Saint Patricks Cathedral, Holy Trinity, and a lot more churches that are underserved, understaffed, underpaid, underattended, and underappreciated.

We need a DC Archdiocese and a DC Archbishop. Let Wuerl trot around the globe making world peace. Please give us someone who cares about the Neighborhood.

Let me give you further facts that may convince you-and this is a serious post intended to start a buzz and serious discussion.
DC has a number of colleges. The traditionally 'catholic' ones are Georgetown and Catholic U. We also have American University, GW, University of the District of Columbia, and a trade school named Strayer. Those students need more than the 'Neuman Center' at GW to explore Catholic thought with their peers. They need more than the GW 'chaplain' to tend to their special needs. There should be a lot more action and activities and resources allocated to young single people for business networking, job searching and creation, retreats, etc.
DC also has a large gay population. They can now legally be married whether you like that or not. They can also legally adopt children whether you like that or not. Are you not going to baptize those children? People in DC tend to be less homophobic. Wuerl has made a number of people uncomfortable, if not enemies with his style. Large numbers of people, lets be honest, just don't like him. Sorry. Hate to tell you but it's true. He has alienated a lot of people who would normally be big fans of any Archbishop.
He has shown an insensitivity to the people in the very parish where he is supposed to be the Chair. Dupont Circle has probably the largest gay population per capita outside San Francisco.
Some of them have been loyal customers of the Cathedral for years. What are you going to do-tell them all to stop going to Mass now? Lots of Single women love gay men-they are part of their social network and help in many ways. The Archbishop burned bridges with his litigation, among other of his legal strategies.

Another reason we need a Washington DC Archbishop is that the homeless population in DC is unlike anything in the suburbs. It is a very special crisis-especially as the foreclosure banking crisis is exposed for what it was with illegal evictions on the part of people motivated by pure GREED. People in the suburbs actually feed off that very same greed. This poses a spiritual conflict of interest of sorts for one governing body to be in spiritual charge of all of it.
It causes there to be profound hurt towards one part of the body to profit another part.

DC also has a serious diplomatic community and World Bank community. People working in DC socialize and network with people of multiple languages and faiths well in the different Embassy communities. They tend to be less xenophobic, more cosmopolitan (urbaine if you will) and tend to enjoy meeting people of other backgrounds more. You therefore want to have a priestly community that has similar background or experiences- more international. Not just people who grew up in Bowie Maryland and lived their entire lives in the Maryland suburbs.
You need to attract a different type of person to serve those people. If everyone eventually gets shuffled off to the suburbs, who wants that job?

Please seriously consider this. Please forward this post far and wide. I know a lot of unhappy people who are considering moving from DC all together to New York, the West Coast or overseas and it would help if the spiritual direction was a little more on point and a little less
seemingly exploitative.