Cardinal Law Out, Boston Speculates on Replacement

On a dismal morning here Saturday, the momentous transfer of power from Cardinal Bernard Law to a temporary overseer of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston was acknowledged in a prayerful entreaty as routine as rain.

Standing in a chapel of the stately Cathedral of the Holy Cross, Father Robert Carr prayed for Pope John Paul II and “Richard, our bishop,” referring to the Most Rev. Richard G. Lennon, who will head the archdiocese until a new archbishop is named.

Gone from the liturgy was any mention of Law, the once powerful cardinal who resigned Friday after a year of an unrelenting sexual abuse scandal that has driven the archdiocese to consider filing for bankruptcy. After the liturgy, Carr asked the congregation to pray for Law.

Lennon, 55, who was ordained as one of Law’s auxiliary bishops only a year and half ago, found himself Friday as John Paul’s “apostolic administrator” of a battered and shaken Boston Archdiocese. He will serve in that position until the pope appoints a permanent replacement for Law.

This is a time of transition in the 2-million-member Boston Archdiocese, even as criminal investigations and sexual abuse lawsuits against priests continue to pummel the church like the driving rain outside the cathedral on Saturday.

Catholics and non-Catholics alike are looking to brighter days ahead that they hope will come with a new archbishop. The appointment also will have national and global implications because the Boston Archdiocese has long been one of America’s most important Catholic sees. In addition, Boston archbishops have traditionally been made cardinals; cardinals elect the pope.

Already, two bishops are on a short list, church insiders say. They are Bishop Wilton D. Gregory of Belleville, Ill., and Archbishop Harry J. Flynn of St. Paul-Minneapolis. Both have been in the forefront of efforts by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to fashion a mandatory “zero tolerance” sexual abuse prevention policy.

Gregory, 55, is better known as chairman of the U.S. bishops conference. Flynn, 69, was chairman of the conference’s ad hoc sexual abuse committee. Both addressed sexual abuse in their own dioceses early on, with openness and firmness.

Other bishops are being mentioned as well, including Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, 58, of Denver; Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien of the church’s military diocese; Bishop Donald W. Wuerl, 62, of Pittsburgh; Bishop William E. Lori of Bridgeport, Conn.; and Bishop Thomas G. Doran of Rockford, Ill.

Meanwhile, some rank-and-file Catholics in Boston hope the pope will name one of their own. “I hope it will be a priest of the Archdiocese of Boston,” said Thomas Groome, a professor of religious education at Boston College and author of “What Makes Us Catholic.” “That’s been the old tradition of the church, and it’s a good tradition. I hope it’s not an import.”

Others, however, say the last thing the archdiocese needs is an insider.

Church insiders caution that it is good to keep in mind a church axiom about the election of popes by cardinals behind the closed doors in the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City.

“A cardinal who goes in as a pope comes out a cardinal,” the saying goes. Much the same might be said about “front runners” for the Boston Archdiocese. But that isn’t stopping the speculation.

Whoever is chosen, their talents, temperaments and track record will be closely scrutinized. “You can bet the minute a successor is named, we’ll read about every overdue library book he’s ever had,” said David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests.

Father Thomas Reese, editor of the Jesuit magazine America, said Law’s successor must have “instant credibility” with Boston’s public, priests and media as being able to handle the sexual abuse crisis “quickly and correctly.”

But while the focus in Boston and, indeed, the U.S. Roman Catholic Church has been on sexual abuse, that will probably not rank highest among John Paul’s concerns in choosing Law’s successor, if history is a guide. He has appointed priests whom he views as being theologically orthodox, activist on social justice issues and conservative when it comes to hot-button issues such as the ordination of women and making celibacy optional.

“It would be naive to think he [the new archbishop] won’t be equally conservative as Law,” said Father Thomas McBrien, a liberal Catholic commentator and professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame. “He will be a conservative, a company man, a Vatican loyalist and someone the priests and laity of Boston will soon find out is no more open to questions of concern to them.”

Conservative Catholic author George Weigel, who wrote a comprehensive biography of John Paul, said whoever is appointed will be faced with restoring fidelity to Catholic moral teaching.

“It seems clear that there are deep, decades-long problems with the clerical culture of Boston, and the new man has got to have experience in reforming priestly life and challenging priests to be what they are by ordination -- icons of the eternal priesthood of Christ,” Weigel said. “In other words, Boston needs a vibrant, compelling, experienced, orthodox leader.”

But on the street outside the cathedral here Saturday, two church members -- a nun and a mother who brought her seventh-grade son to take an entrance exam at the cathedral high school -- had their own ideas.

Sister Madeline Gallagher, who has worked for years here with immigrants in Catholic education, said she was rooting for “the black man” -- she couldn’t remember his name. “I was just impressed with his fairness and his manner approaching the people,” she said.

She was referring to Gregory. Gallagher might not have read in the Boston Globe that Gregory was considered a long-shot. She had watched Gregory on television. “The way he responded was with great respect, yet he was firm with the reporters,” she said.

Rafaela Cruz, who brought her son to the school, said she was glad Law was gone. “Whoever comes in next has to deal with all the lying and the cover-up,” she said, “and make it easier for the good people of the church, like the teachers, to do their work.”

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Times staff writer Josh Getlin contributed to this report. Stammer reported from Los Angeles, and Baum from Boston.