I’ve got a good feeling:

Timothy Dolan, 59, widely seen as affable and an extrovert, is expected to use the position to more vocally advance issues close to the U.S. Catholic Church, including poverty relief and opposition to abortion.

“He’ll be critical of the Obama administration on abortion, but he’ll be willing to work with them on other issues of justice and peace,” said Father Tom Reese, senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University.

Dolan, like other prominent U.S. Catholic leaders, faces enormous challenges including healing wounds from a sexual abuse scandal that cost the U.S. church some $2 billion in settlement payments with victims.

He replaces Cardinal Edward Egan, 76, who kept a lower profile and was more distant from the clergy, critics say, and who is retiring after nearly nine years as archbishop.

“It is the premier bully-pulpit in the American Catholic Church and I think there is pretty much universal agreement that during the Egan years, that bully-pulpit was underutilized,” said John Allen, a columnist for the National Catholic Reporter.