With the local hierarchy arrayed on the altar, New Orleans’ unusual status in the American church was on display. It is the only city with four archbishops: Aymond, Hughes, Hannan and retired Archbishop Francis Schulte, now 82.
Though both frail, Hannan and Schulte, the latter moving slowly with a cane, processed out the church at the end of the ceremony, enjoying applause directed at them. Schulte now splits time between New Orleans and his native Philadelphia, reportedly having transferred his medical care there after the chaos in New Orleans after Katrina.
Archbishop Hannan, now 96 yrs old, will always be remembered for his wise decision not to go along with his US brother bishops’ nutty endorsement of the nuclear freeze with the Soviet Union proposal in the early eighties.