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	New Baltimore Archbishop to Focus on Seminary Recruitment By Ben Greene The Examiner July 12, 2007 http://www.examiner.com/a-825366~New_Baltimore_archbishop_to_focus_on_seminary_recruitment.html Baltimore - Newly appointed Baltimore Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien will focus on recruiting priests to the diocese's two seminaries, drawing on his personal motto, "I will give you shepherds of my own heart," he said Thursday. He selected the motto from Jeremiah 3:15 after then-Pope John Paul II's 1990 synod on priests' formation. "This is the ideal - to have shepherds after the heart of Christ," O'Brien, 68, said at a news conference with retiring Cardinal William Keeler at downtown Baltimore's historic Basilica of the Assumption. Speaking later Thursday's noon Mass, Keeler said O'Brien was living his motto. "As shepherd, he will lead us and help us to see Christ," Keeler said. The Vatican announced Thursday that O'Brien, head of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, would replace Keeler on Oct. 1 to become 15th archbishop of Baltimore. The United States' oldest diocese serves about 510,000 Catholics in the city of Baltimore and nine counties in central and western Maryland. Keeler, required to submit his resignation last year upon reaching age 75, said the low point in his 18-year tenure was the national crisis over priests sexually abusing church members. The repercussions in Baltimore included the shooting of a priest by a former altar boy who said the priest had molested him nearly a decade earlier. Keeler's highlight was the support he received while overseeing a $32 million renovation of the basilica, the oldest cathedral in the U.S. It was built between 1806 and 1821. Another high point was the 1994 visit of Pope John Paul II. Mother Theresa visited the city two years later. Keeler suffered ill health in the last year, including lingering injuries from a car accident in Italy that killed another priest. O'Brien described himself as Irish Catholic from the Bronx, N.Y. He said his family were the only Catholics in a Jewish apartment building. After his father died, he said those families "virtually adopted us." Practicing Catholicism while living alongside people from different backgrounds should help O'Brien continue Keeler's legacy of interfaith work with Jewish and Orthodox leaders. Working as a Vietnam War chaplain with ministers of other faiths will also aid him, he said. Thomas J. Reese, senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University in Washington, agreed that O'Brien's previous roles with the U.S. military required him to be "very ecumenical. The generals demand it," Reese said. The Archdiocese for the Military Services serves about 1.5 million Catholics, including all in the military and their families. Reese said the new position could be seen as a promotion, even though O'Brien was already an archbishop. "Baltimore is a prestigious archdiocese. And he's possibly in line to become a cardinal." Keeler was named cardinal five years after becoming archbishop. O'Brien becomes a pastoral leader of a city and much of a state that is rich in U.S. Catholic history. Baltimore is home to the first U.S. bishop, first cathedral, first diocese and first archdiocese. The first order of black nuns and the first black parish were founded in Baltimore. The city is also home to St. Mary's Seminary, the nation's first training ground for priests, and Mount St. Mary's Seminary in Emmitsburg is the second U.S. seminary. O'Brien coordinated the Vatican's major evaluation of U.S. seminaries in 2005 and 2006 after the church sexual abuse crisis. The unpublished review focused on teachings on chastity and celibacy and looked for homosexual students. In a 2005 Associated Press interview, O'Brien said most gay candidates for the priesthood struggle to remain celibate and the church must "stay on the safe side" by restricting their enrollment. He agrees with the Vatican's position that keeps men with "deep-seated" homosexual tendencies from becoming priests. O'Brien has been rector twice of his alma mater - St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers, N.Y. - from 1985 to 1989 and 1994 to 1997. From 1990 to 1994, he served as rector of the Pontifical North American College in Rome. His deep voice echoing off the Basilica's ornate walls at Thursday's news conference, O'Brien said he was working alone July 3 in his Washington office when Monsignor Martin Krebs, charge d'affaires of the Vatican nunciature, called. Krebs asked him if he was alone, then "he paused and said 'The Holy Father has appointed you the Archbishop of Baltimore.'" Keeping the papal secret from family and friends for nine days was hard, he said. With the phrase, "'Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies," running through his head, he said, "I was kind of bursting - and I'm glad nobody asked me."
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