BOSTON (MA)
Beliefnet.com
A year ago, Catholics in the archdiocese of Boston were reeling under the shock of the church’s sexual abuse scandal. Angry and grief-stricken, they wondered whether any church leader could be trusted to address the crisis directly and help heal the diocese’s wounds.
Enter Sean O’Malley, a Franciscan monk who had served for a decade as bishop of Fall River, Mass. —another diocese troubled by abuse charges. There, “O’Malley earned a reputation for listening patiently to abuse victims, often for hours, and for negotiating out-of-court settlements that even had plaintiffs’ lawyers praising him,” writes David Gibson in a Beliefnet article. His reputation as a pastor of the people was longstanding. As a bishop and earlier as a priest, he had always eschewed lavish housing and focused his ministry on the poor.
In July of this year, O’Malley was appointed to the Boston archdiocese as a successor to Cardinal Bernard Law, who had resigned under strong pressure from laypeople and priests alike.
As the new pastor of Boston’s Catholics, O’Malley (“Bishop Sean”) immediately set a different tone, wearing sandals and his Capuchin robe to his inaugural press conference and saying he would steer clear of the opulent archbishop’s mansion. Instead, he moved to a South End apartment.
