(Merriam Webster) Definition of aggrandize, aggrandized; aggrandizing
transitive verb
1: to make great or greater
2: to make appear great or greater, praise highly
3: to enhance the power, wealth, position, or reputation of
Presiding Bishop Michael Curry,
Diocese of Maryland Bishop Suffragan Heather Cook*, and
(former) Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts
Her back story is given below; she did have an impressive staff, gown, and that, and was an important celebrity.
Parole hearing scheduled next month for former Episcopal Bishop Heather Cook | Baltimore Brew
Here’s that story (from the Washington Post, May 9, 2017):
Commission Chairman David Blumberg said the two commissioners who ruled on the case told him one reason they denied Cook parole was that she “took no responsibility” and “showed no remorse” for her actions during the 90-minute hearing.
Blumberg said Cook will no longer be eligible for parole.
Blumberg, who was not present at the meeting but spoke to the commissioners immediately afterward, said they informed him that even though Cook, 60, spoke at length, she never apologized to Rachel Palermo, the widow of Thomas Palermo, the father of two whom Cook killed while driving drunk and texting on Dec. 27, 2014.
Tuesday was Cook’s first opportunity at parole since she was sentenced and imprisoned on Oct. 27, 2015.
Thomas Palermo, a senior software engineer at Johns Hopkins Hospital who built bike frames, was well known in the local cycling community.
Cook, then the No. 2 official in the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, was driving south on Roland Avenue two days after Christmas 2014 when she drove her 2001 Subaru into a bike lane and struck Palermo, 41. Palermo was cycling in the same direction and apparently never saw Cook’s vehicle coming.
Witnesses said Cook left the scene and drove to her nearby apartment complex before returning 30 minutes after the crash.
Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby said a breath test measured Cook’s blood alcohol level at 0.22 percent, nearly three times the legal limit in Maryland.
Cook had pleaded guilty to a drunken-driving charge on the Eastern Shore in 2010 in which she registered a blood alcohol level of 0.27 percent. In that incident, police said they found marijuana and empty liquor bottles in her car and that Cook had been driving on a shredded tire.
The Episcopal Diocese of Maryland had elevated Cook to the position of bishop suffragan in May 2014. Katharine Jefferts Schori, then presiding bishop of the national church, had presided at the ceremony in which Cook was consecrated as bishop.
Diocesan officials said the search committee that selected Cook was aware of the 2010 case, but committee members were unfamiliar with its details.