Buzz over new bishops

Whilst in Belgium the appointment of a new archbishop of Brussels is going down like a ton of bricks, over in the Czech Republic the Vatican is taking its time in appointing a successor to the much-loved cardinal Miroslav Vlk at the head of the Prague archdiocese – so much so that the native press is growing restless. In Brussels, Le Soirdescribes Monsignor André-Mutien Léonard, appointed by Benedict XVI on 18 January, as the “most well known and least esteemed” of the candidates by dint of his reactionary stance on euthanasia, abortion, homosexuality, stem cell research, divorce and contraception. According to an exclusive poll conducted by Le Soir, a mere 17% of Belgian Catholics think he’d make a good archbishop. "It won’t be easy finding a new Vlk,” headlines Mladá fronta DNES in Prague, given Mgr Vlk’s heavy legacy: the Czech Republic is in fact “one of the most atheistic countries in Europe”, in which “the relation between Church and state remains unresolved, owing especially to the problems involved in returning Church property that was confiscated by the Communists”.