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Bishops elect Cardinal George as new president

16-Nov-07
CNS News

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The U.S. bishops Nov. 13 elected Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago as their president and Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of Tucson, Ariz., as their vice president. Using an electronic voting system, the bishops voted on the second day of their Nov. 12-15 fall general meeting in Baltimore. Cardinal George won on the first ballot with 188 votes, or 85 percent. He is completing his three-year term as vice president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. After a president was chosen from among 10 candidates, the remaining nine became the slate of candidates for vice president. There were three rounds of voting for vice president. Two votes included all nine remaining candidates and the third vote was between the top two: Bishop Kicanas and Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of Milwaukee. Bishop Kicanas won with 128 votes; the archbishop received 106. Bishop Kicanas was conference secretary; he was elected to the post in November 2006, so the bishops had to vote for a new secretary. On Nov. 14 they elected Bishop George V. Murry of Youngstown, Ohio. He received 114 votes. The other candidate, Archbishop Dolan, received 112.