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	Archbishop O'Brien to Begin Stewardship with Listening Tour By G.M. Corrigan The Examiner August 4, 2007 http://www.examiner.com/a-863154~Archbishop_O_Brien_to_begin_stewardship _with_listening_tour.html Baltimore - Onward, Christian soldier. Army jump school-qualified and trouble-shooter for God at Catholic seminaries and remote Vietnam War firebases alike, Archbishop-designate for the Archdiocese of Baltimore Edwin F. O'Brien will begin his service with an archdiocesian listening tour. "I want to get out to meet the priests and the people ... and [ask them] what they think my priorities should be," said O'Brien, currently archbishop for the Archdiocese for military services in Washington. Scheduled for installation as the 15th ordinary for Catholicism's oldest U.S. diocese, O'Brien, 68, will replace the ailing William Cardinal Keeler, 76, Oct. 1, according to archdiocesian sources. He currently oversees 1.5 million Catholics and 300 priests throughout the military and was instrumental in Catholic seminary reform in the wake of clergy sex abuse disclosures. "I think he will be a great friend of the Jewish community," said Rabbi Steven Fink of Baltimore's Temple Oheb Shalom, "and continue where Cardinal Keeler left off in interfaith relations." Keeler, who has led the region's 518,000 Catholics, 545 priests and 1,400 religious since 1989, retires at a time of tumult within the American Catholic church. Noting a welcome increase in seminary attendance since Keeler's elevation, O'Brien said. "We have to jump on that. ... Very often vocations are a barometer of the morale of the priests," he said. As to one cause of priestly low morale — the clergy sexual abuse scandal — O'Brien conceded that "a lot of damage has been done." He added, however, that he couldn't yet comment on claims that Maryland statute of limitations laws prevented alleged victims from filing claims against the diocese. "The law is the law," he said, possibly alluding to a reform bill directed largely at the church, "and Catholics shouldn't be singled out." As for the controversy over distribution of communion to Catholic politicians who reject fundamental church teachings, O'Brien said he would initially attempt to counsel the mavericks. "To use holy communion as a weapon to threaten people I think has to be the very last resort," he said, "and I think I would not be in favor of that at this stage." O'Brien thinks most people "hunger to grow closer to their creator," but sees American society on a "slippery slope" of moral relativism that the church is virtually alone in opposing. Someday, he said, "maybe we'll be given credit for that." Contact: gcorrigan@baltimoreexaminer.com
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