PLANS are under way to install the next Archbishop of Glasgow on the last Friday in June, to coincide with a major Catholic feast day, The Herald can reveal.
It is also understood the current Archbishop, Mario Conti, will step down formally before the end of May, with Catholic protocol determining a replacement be installed within one to three months.
With a raft of bishops standing down in the months ahead and younger, more orthodox, churchmen in their place, the next Archbishop is due to be installed sooner rather than later.
The Catholic Church's first preference for a date for Archbishop Conti's successor to take the role is June 29, the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, which honours the martyrdom in Rome of the two apostles.
The Herald revealed yesterday how Archbishop Conti would be stepping down imminently as the first major move in a change of hierarchy in Scotland.
Bishop Vincent Logan of Dunkeld will be replaced in July, Bishop Joe Devine of Motherwell will retire in August, while John Cunningham, Bishop of Galloway, turns 75 soon and is in poor health.
Sources say they will all be replaced with "Benedict's men", bishops whose approach is in line with the current Pope's thinking.
Philip Tartaglia, the current Bishop of Paisley, is the expected successor to Archbishop Conti.
Monsignor Peter Magee, previously a Vatican diplomat in the US, is an outside bet.
A source added: "There are also several very able priests in Rome who just might get the call home."
Last night, Liz Leydon, editor of the Scottish Catholic Observer, said the indications were that Archbishop Conti would announce his departure this month, but added: "The exact date and the name of the archbishop's successor are as yet unknown."
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