BOSTON (Reuters) – Sean O’Malley, the Catholic bishop picked to lead the Archdiocese of Boston, said on Tuesday protecting children was his top priority and vowed to heal a church still devastated by a clergy sexual abuse scandal.
Speaking to reporters here hours after the Vatican named him the new archbishop of Boston, O’Malley said he wanted to settle the hundreds of clergy sexual abuse lawsuits facing the church and criticized previous archdiocese leaders for their handling of pedophile priests.
“The entire church feels the pain of this scandal and longs for relief for the families and communities that have been so shaken by these sad events and by the mishandling of this situation on the part of the church’s officials,” he said.
O’Malley, currently bishop of Palm Beach, Florida, is known as a soft-spoken but very conservative bishop with wide experience in healing dioceses damaged by sex abuse scandals.
[Full Story]
They keep playing good news/bad news with this Bishop.
Last year it was “I got some good news for you, you are going to be a Bishop in sunny Florida, by the way it’s Palm Beach.”
This year it is “You are going to be a future Cardinal, by the way it’s in Boston.”
