A Humble Bishop to Lead Boston Archdiocese

BOSTON -- He wears sandals and the rough, brown robes of an order committed to serving the poor. He often invites visitors to call him by his first name, Sean. The new archbishop of Boston also speaks a half-dozen languages and, in his first official remarks here Tuesday, quoted comfortably from Jesus Christ, St. Francis of Assisi and “A Prairie Home Companion.”

And while he has made strides as bishop of two previous dioceses engulfed by the clerical sexual abuse scandal, the task facing Bishop Sean Patrick O’Malley in Boston is at least as great as the honor awarded him.

“It is such a huge diocese, and to come in at such a time of great crisis,” the 59-year-old Capuchin Franciscan friar said Tuesday, hours after the Vatican tapped him to lead the troubled archdiocese at the center of the worldwide abuse scandal.

O’Malley described himself as “overwhelmed” and “kind of shellshocked,” adding, “I think almost any human being would feel inadequate.”

As if to send a signal about what the 2.1 million Catholics in the nation’s fourth-largest archdiocese can expect from the successor to Cardinal Bernard Law -- who resigned last December under mounting pressure from parishioners and priests alike -- O’Malley scheduled a meeting with abuse victims as part of his first-day agenda.

“I have said it many times and I am going to say it again to the victims today, that I ask for forgiveness for these horrendous crimes and sins that have been committed,” he declared. “The whole church feels ashamed and pained.”

At his introductory press conference, O’Malley provided cues about his doctrinal inclinations, listing “protection for the unborn” as a key priority. He promised to minister to immigrants and expressed concerns about the dwindling numbers of priests and seminarians -- and about the toll the sexual abuse crisis has taken on clerical morale.

In addition, the new archbishop offered a nod to emerging lay organizations rebuffed until now by church hierarchy. Calling the job of restoring the church in Boston “an arduous task,” he added: “I know the laity has a great role to play in this process.”

Born in Ohio, O’Malley was raised in Pennsylvania. From the time he was 5 years old, he expressed an interest in joining the ministry, acquaintances said. He was ordained in 1970, and three years later became director of the Centro Catolico Hispano in Washington, D.C. He promptly helped organize a rent strike among Spanish-speaking immigrants.

In 1984, he became bishop of St. Thomas, in the Virgin Islands. When a priest in Fall River, Mass., was charged with molesting scores of children in 1992, O’Malley was dispatched to the diocese in the old mill area south of Boston to clean things up.

Working without a road map, O’Malley set up a system to provide treatment and restitution for victims, as well as procedures to help avert sexual abuse by priests. He worked closely with law enforcement, and was instrumental in settling 101 cases brought by victims of Father James Porter, according to the lawyer who represented those men and women.

Roderick MacLeish Jr., who now represents clients in hundreds of cases of alleged sexual abuse by priests in the Boston archdiocese, said O’Malley’s track record makes him hopeful that a much-disputed settlement may be forthcoming.

“We don’t know if we’re going to be able to resolve these cases,” MacLeish said. “But there is clearly a better chance of it now.”

Asked about how the lessons of Fall River might apply to Boston -- where more than 100 priests have been named in abuse cases, some of which date back decades -- O’Malley said, “Listening to the [victims] was the biggest help, and I hope to be able to do that here.”

His success in Fall River made O’Malley the Vatican’s pick 10 months ago to restore order to the diocese of Palm Beach, Fla., where two bishops were ousted following sexual abuse accusations.

Edward M. Ricci, a Florida attorney who set up a Web site denouncing pedophilia in the priesthood, praised O’Malley for making it clear that “he wouldn’t tolerate sexual misbehavior.”

Ricci, who met with the bishop and was told to call him Sean, predicted that in Boston, “He will drive himself in a Chevrolet, not be driven in a limousine. He doesn’t believe in the trappings of a monarchical clergy.” As archbishop, he can even continue to wear his monastic robes.

By contrast, O’Malley’s predecessor was an aloof, imperial figure, said Stephen Pope, chairman of the theology department at Boston College. Although O’Malley’s personality and administrative style differ markedly from Law’s, Pope said, the two share a conservative theology that is “John Paul II all the way.”

Pope also wondered how far O’Malley’s affability will carry him in an archdiocese where bankruptcy regularly has been discussed as an option for dealing with millions of dollars in pending sexual abuse claims. Donations to the Boston Archdiocese have plummeted as the abuse scandal raged over the last 18 months, and several Catholic schools have been shut to help tighten purse strings. Some Boston priests are doing extra duty in several parishes.

“The problems we have are not just stylistic, they are substantial,” Pope said. “He’s going to have to deal on the personal and pastoral level, but also with the lawyers and the insurance companies.”

The challenge of reuniting the financially and spiritually splintered archdiocese of Boston is daunting. “Unless he is a miracle worker, I don’t see how he is going to be able to do it and keep everybody happy,” said Father Thomas Reese, editor of the Jesuit magazine America.

Not only must O’Malley face tough fiscal decisions while also reaching out to abuse victims, but “his priests are hurting badly,” Reese said. “The good priests, their morale has been devastated by this sex abuse crisis.”

Father Robert Bullock, a leader in a group called the Boston Priests’ Forum that sprang up during the crisis, said he expected O’Malley to be “very direct and positive” in dealing with clergy. Bullock termed O’Malley’s appointment “a relief, especially when you think what might have been.”

Until shortly before his appointment, O’Malley’s name did not surface among front-runners for the prestigious Boston position.

Several observers said his selection suggested that Rome felt it necessary to move beyond the pool from which U.S. archbishops normally are chosen: diocesan priests who have worked their way up, establishing themselves as Vatican politicians.

But, as Reese pointed out, “The last thing the Vatican could afford to do was to appoint someone who was a question mark in the sexual abuse crisis. They needed to choose someone who had credibility from Day One, and O’Malley does.”

Dr. James Muller, founder of the lay group Voice of the Faithful, also expressed optimism.

“He is a humble and devout man without an imperial style. I believe he really cares about the survivors. And ... I believe he wants to work with the laity,” Muller said. “We have been waiting to hear those things from a church leader for a long time.”

But some survivors edged their comments with skepticism.

“Closure for clergy sexual abuse victims does not come with the mere appointment of a new bishop,” said Gary M. Bergeron, organizer of a group called Survivors of Rev. Joseph Birmingham. “Closure will only come when the lifetime of betrayal and pain ... is replaced by trust and peace.”

O’Malley -- who holds a doctorate in Spanish and Portuguese literature -- responded to questions Tuesday from Latino reporters by slipping into fluent Spanish. Returning to English, he displayed what admirers say is characteristic modesty by noting that Capuchin monks seldom climb the ranks of church hierarchy. “I’m not sure why the pope picked me,” the new archbishop said.

This rather unassuming quality came as no surprise to Los Angeles Archdiocese spokesman Tod Tamberg, who taught at a Catholic high school in the Virgin Islands while O’Malley was bishop there.

The tall, bearded monk liked to stroll through the streets in sandals and the hooded brown robe of his order, Tamberg said, and one day “one of the locals, a Rastafarian, leaned out the window of his car and said, ‘Good morning, rabbi!’ ”

O’Malley grinned and said good morning right back, Tamberg said.

Times researcher Anna M. Virtue in Miami contributed to this report.

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Sean Patrick O’Malley

Age: 59

Born: June 29, 1944; Lakewood, Ohio

Education: St. Fidelis Seminary, Herman, Pa.; Capuchin College, Washington, D.C.; doctorate in Spanish and Portuguese literature, Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C.

Career: Priest in the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin since 1970; taught at Catholic University; vicar for Spanish-speaking community and executive director of social ministry with the Archdiocese

of Washington; bishop of St. Thomas, American Virgin Islands, in 1985; bishop of Fall River, Mass., in

1992; bishop of Palm Beach, Fla., since October

Distinctions: Chosen by the Vatican for abuse cleanups in both Fall River, which was reeling from the Father James Porter case, and Palm Beach, in which two bishops in a row admitted they were guilty of abuse

Source: Associated Press

Los Angeles Times