World Courant
BOSTON — Pope Francis on Monday accepted the resignation of Cardinal Sean O’Malley as Archbishop of Boston and appointed the present Bishop of Windfall, Rhode Island, Richard Henning, to exchange him as chief of some of the essential Catholic archdioceses in the USA.
The Vatican announcement made no point out of O’Malley’s different key position as head of the Pontifical Fee for the Safety of Minors, Francis’s chief adviser on clerical sexual abuse. It has been instructed he’ll stay in that position till a brand new fee chief is known as.
St. John Paul II had tapped O’Malley to take over the Boston workplace in 2003, on the peak of the clergy intercourse abuse scandal that had exploded there after an investigation by the Boston Globe newspaper. Revelations of years of abuse and cover-ups by the church led to the downfall of then-archbishop Cardinal Bernard Legislation, who resigned in shame in December 2002.
At 80, O’Malley is 5 years older than the conventional retirement age for bishops. His successor, Henning, 59, of Rockville Centre, Lengthy Island, has been bishop of Windfall since final 12 months.
“The arrival of a brand new archbishop is all the time a second of renewal and hope,” O’Malley stated at a information convention.
“Pope Francis stated {that a} priest is somebody who brings hope to stressed hearts,” he stated. “Archbishop Henning is a joyful shepherd who desires to serve Christ.”
The Archdiocese of Boston is the fourth-largest archdiocese in the USA, serving greater than 1.8 million Roman Catholics. It had working bills of greater than $350 million in fiscal 12 months 2023, and its faculties serve greater than 46,000 college students.
Francis has lengthy expressed his appreciation for O’Malley, selecting him as a founding member of his high cardinal advisers, often known as the C9.
In that position, O’Malley not solely suggested Francis on little one safety points but in addition helped form reforms to the Vatican paperwork.
O’Malley was born in Ohio and was ordained a priest within the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin in 1970. He got here to Massachusetts in 1992 to function bishop of Fall River, a diocese rocked by a intercourse abuse scandal through which a priest was convicted of abusing youngsters. O’Malley was tasked with settling abuse claims.
The expertise proved helpful in 2003, when, after serving as bishop of the diocese of Palm Seashore, Florida, he was appointed archbishop of Boston by Pope John Paul II. He as soon as once more took cost of a district rocked by sexual abuse—this time a way more high-profile disaster involving dozens of monks.
However David Clohessy, former nationwide director of the Survivors Community of these Abused by Monks (SNAP), criticized O’Malley for “a masterful job together with his public relations, however a very disappointing efficiency with regard to the church’s ongoing abuse and cover-ups.”
“He has rigorously introduced himself as a ‘reformer’ whereas refusing to take a few of the easiest and most confirmed steps to warn mother and father, parishioners and the general public about potential threats to clergy,” Clohessy stated in a press release.
Henning is prone to convey extra of the identical, stated Mitchell Garabedian, an legal professional who has represented victims of abuse for many years.
“Bishop Henning has no observe file of defending youngsters, both by talking out forcefully towards clergy sexual abuse or by supporting substantive change,” he stated in a press release, calling Henning “a company man.”
“Victims consider that Bishop Henning will basically ignore the ugly drawback of clergy sexual abuse and hope it should merely go away,” he stated.
O’Malley’s relationship with Francis hasn’t all the time been simple. In 2018, he a scathing assertion rebuking Francis after the pope was dismissed allegations of abuse by Chilean survivors of the nation’s most infamous abuser.
O’Malley’s harsh tone was one thing of a wake-up name for Francis, who finally apologized after ordering an investigation into the Chilean scandal.
Extra not too long ago, O’Malley’s fee flagged “critical issues” within the Vatican’s dealing with of the case of a former Jesuit artist, the Rev. Marko Rupnik, prompting Francis to reopen the case.
Henning expressed his gratitude to Pope Francis for the brand new appointment and described O’Malley as a devoted servant who “has served the Boston Church faithfully and joyfully for a few years” throughout his tenure.
“I’m grateful to His Holiness Pope Francis for his confidence in me and for granting me this new mission as Archbishop of Boston. I settle for this appointment with belief in Divine Windfall, realizing that that is the Church of the Lord and that I’m not more than an unworthy servant,” he stated in a press release.
