Posted Monday, June 30, 2003 at 12:58 p.m. CST

O'Malley appointment well received in Boston

By Joe Feuerherd

Let the honeymoon begin.

Palm Beach, Fla., Bishop Sean O'Malley's imminent appointment to head the beleaguered Boston archdiocese was welcomed June 30 by a cross section of the city's Catholics.

O'Malley, formerly bishop of the Fall River diocese in Massachusetts, is no stranger to Boston-area Catholics. In his decade in Fall River, O'Malley is best remembered for bringing order and relative calm to a diocese reeling from its own clerical sexual abuse scandal. The 59-year-old Capuchin Franciscan performed a similar service in Palm Beach where last year he assumed office following allegations of sexual impropriety by his two immediate predecessors.

In the early 1990s, Fall River diocesan priest James Porter was convicted of sexually assaulting dozens of young people, leading to a prison sentence for him and payments of approximately $7 million by the diocese to his victims.

"Our initial reaction is very positive," said Voice of the Faithful spokesperson Luise Dittrich. O'Malley's reputation is one of inclusiveness and outreach to priests, laity and sexual abuse survivors, said Dittrich, and that's the "right tone and approach" to bring to Boston.

Bill Gately, the regional co-coordinator of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said he is "optimistic" about O'Malley's selection. O'Malley has had the "significant experience through the Porter case, where he had the presence of mind to implement a relatively successful plan of action to resolve sex abuse cases in that diocese," Gately said.

Of concern, said Gately, is that O'Malley has not taken a national leadership role in the sex abuse crisis of the past year-and-a-half and had some run-ins with prosecutors as Fall River bishop.

Attorney David Zizik, vice chair of the parish pastoral council at Sherborn's St. Theresa Parish and a founding board member of the Parish Leadership Forum, said O'Malley gets "very high marks from a host of different people."

Said Zizik: "He's doctrinally conservative and very able and willing to listen to different points of view." Zizik hopes O'Malley will "set a new tone for dealing with episcopal leadership" in the archdiocese.

Writing on his Web log earlier this month, Fr. Robert Carr, parochial vicar at Boston's Cathedral of the Holy Cross, said that he is "coming to a point that when the new bishop arrives I will probably not shake his hand. I will tell him that we have suffered so much here and that respect is earned, therefore, when he earns my respect then I will shake his hand."

Contacted after news of O'Malley's imminent appointment spread, Carr said O'Malley is "someone whose hand I can shake."

Asked if O'Malley's reputation for doctrinal orthodoxy was a plus, Carr said O'Malley is "more known for his holiness -- and that's key."

Joe Feuerherd is NCR Washington correspondent. His e-mail address is jfeuerherd@natcath.org

National Catholic Reporter, June 30, 2003