BURLINGTON (VT)
Burlington Free Press
Published: Thursday, November 10, 2005
By Sam Hemingway
Free Press Staff Writer
Newly named Bishop Salvatore R. Matano said Wednesday that the state's Roman Catholic diocese faces "turbulent waters" ahead but he intends to go slow on any plans to close parishes or sell church property.
Matano, whose ascension to bishop was assured when he was named the diocese's co-adjutor bishop in April, said his priority as the ninth bishop of the statewide Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington will be to re-energize support for the church among Catholics in Vermont.
Matano officially replaced retiring Bishop Kenneth A. Angell on Wednesday when Pope Benedict XVI accepted Angell's retirement request. ...
Angell, 75, also wrestled with ongoing sex abuse scandals involving priests who allegedly molested children in the past. In the mid-1990s, the church confronted claims by more than 100 former orphanage residents that they were physically abused or molested by nuns, church personnel or priests at the facility in the decades before it was closed in 1974.