June 07, 2005

Many graduating seniors ask Bishop McCormack to stay away

MANCHESTER (NH)
Foster's Daily Democrat

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — The priest sexual abuse scandal continues to cause problems for Roman Catholic Bishop John McCormack.

Nearly half the 112 seniors at Trinity High School signed petitions asking McCormack not to celebrate the school's baccalaureate Mass on Wednesday, the New Hampshire Union Leader reported Tuesday. A McCormack spokesman says the bishop will celebrate the Mass anyway.

"He doesn't go to baccalaureate Masses because he is picked," the Rev. Edward Arsenault said. "He goes because it's his ministry."

McCormack is a former top official of the Boston Archdiocese, where he was accused of going easy on priests accused of child sexual abuse. From 1992 to 1994, he investigated sexual misconduct allegations for Cardinal Bernard Law, who was forced to resign because of the scandal.

Some of McCormack's critics continue to call for him to resign.

Posted by kshaw at June 7, 2005 09:33 AM