Update November 17th:  They picked Dolan of New York, here.

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops, a religious Left political organization and one of the largest recipients of federal dollars (top eleven volags*) to resettle refugees is about to pick a new head honcho.  Here is a story in the Salt Lake Tribune about how it might be the Bishop from Utah.

Utah’s Catholic Bishop John C. Wester is on a short list of finalists to become the next president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Wester, leader of Utah’s 300,000 Catholics since March 2007, is among 10 nominees to succeed outgoing president, Chicago Cardinal Francis George, who will complete his three-year term at the bishops’ annual meeting in Baltimore Nov. 15 through 18.

By a long-standing tradition, the conference’s vice president, Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas, 69, of Tucson, Arizona, is the likely successor, according to Vatican watcher Rocco Palmo, of Philadelphia.

But that still leaves nine other men, including Wester, the youngest nominee at 58, vying for vice president.

The money and the political power flow from immigration issue

As head of the cash cow portion of the USCCB, Bishop Wester positioned himself well.

Wester heads the bishops’ influential committee on Migration and Refugee Services, as well as the Administrative Committee, Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC) Board, Catholic Relief Services Board and the Subcommittee on Interreligious Dialogue. He already spends much of his time speaking out on immigration issues and traveling the world representing the bishops’ concerns about displaced peoples.

* Volag stands for “voluntary agency” but thats a misnomer.  They are not voluntarily taking care of refugees out of the goodness of their hearts, they are paid by you, the taxpayer, to give others your charity.