New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan set off this evening for Rome, where he will be elevated to cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI.
Dolan left his St. Patrick’s residence in a tan SUV on his way to JFK around 6:45 p.m., where he catch an Alitalia flight for his historic elevation at the Vatican next week. His flight is scheduled to land in Rome at around 6 a.m. New York time.
Dolan, tapped for the honor last month, will be appointed to the Roman Catholic Church’s second-highest rank next Saturday.
Dolan has called the appointment “humbling” and this week joked that he might need a quick drink to calm his nerves before speaking with the pope in Italian.
He will deliver a speech on the topic of new evangelization to ensure people living in European countries steeped in the Catholic tradition remain faithful at the Vatican on Friday, and will be interrogated by the pope — in Italian — in front of all current cardinals.
The next day, Dolan and 21 others will be made cardinals at a consistory ceremony at St. Peter’s Basilica. It is there that they will receive their red biretta hats and gold rings.
Dolan and the other freshman cardinals also will discuss with the pope making two Americans saints.
The two women up for sainthood are Kateri Tekakwitha, a Native American who lived in the 1600s, and Marianne Cope, a nun who died in 1918 while caring for lepers in Hawaii.
The pope will ultimately decide whether the women will be canonized.
“I found that to be an honor,” Dolan said of his involvement in the process.
Dolan will continue to lead the Archdiocese of New York and its 2.5 million parishioners after he becomes cardinal. He took the reigns of the Archdiocese from Edward Cardinal Egan in 2009.
The honor is the latest feather in Dolan’s cap. Last year, he was elected president of the US Conference of Bishops, becoming the voice of the bishops on national issues from health care to abortion to gay marriage.