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When I started keeping score in about 1998,I was very upset with what I considered to be a bunch of rogue bishops. Over the years,I watched how they handled the abuse cases,I read columns they wrote in their diocesan newspapers and in various Catholic publications and looked for orthodoxy or heterodoxy. I read editorials and letters to the editor in Catholic publications (approximately 12 to 15 monthly)running the gamut from the most liberal to the most conservative and traditionsl and watched carefully for the stances taken for or against certain B/bishops.I watched the committees they sat on and followed the reports and dispositions, I took every oppurtunity to watch them on TV and hear and see the texts of their talks and study their body language. I checked who offered their Installation Mass and who concelebrated it. I searched to see who vetted them and who sat in decision making postions.

I know my list of the heterodox or bad bishops is right on. In the process of trying to figure oout just how bad the shape of the Church in the U.S. was,I noticed some Bishops,who just seemed to be Catholic so I started tracking them,I looked at the number of priests,the seminaries they used,increase or decrease in percentages of Catholics in their diocese. I had a pretty good idea aboout some of them because in watching for the bad ones,I would also run across some that seemed to be very much in union with the Pope and Magisterium,so I started ticking them too. Of course I put all the info somewhere and am still looking for it but since I can't link and have a hard time typing,I don't know what good it would do. I believe that I am a little concerned about four that were on my second grade of good list (Buchlein,Levada,O'Malley,Dolan))but I am willing to bet that three out of the four are going to turn out just fine. Again,the bad ones are bad,guaranteed. They are little(c) catholics;progressive,marxist,leftist,homosexual or homosexual sympathizers.

I agree, a good Bishop should be defined with much more than whether or not he is pro life. Being pro life is about the same as an employee showing up on time for his job. After than it's how well he does the job. At the very least, a Bishop should be pro life, it's all the other things that make a good Bishop.

Essentially what we are discussing is a Dumbed down job description.