By Kathryn Marchocki
Union Leader
September 22, 2008
http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Bishop+McCormack+suffered%2C+learned&articleId=5f7f4f65-8013-4e97-948a-dff62090fdc6
THE REV. JOHN Brendan McCormack had three strikes against him before he even stepped foot in New Hampshire to lead its Catholics 10 years ago today.
One, he was not a local boy.
Worse, he came from Boston.
Lastly, he wasn't Bishop Leo E. O'Neil, his charismatic and highly regarded predecessor. A raconteur in the best Irish-American tradition, O'Neil was beloved by the Catholic faithful who followed him through his public and painful battle with cancer and collectively grieved his death in 1997.
Nine months later, Cardinal Bernard F. Law of Boston installed McCormack as the ninth bishop of the state's estimated 320,000 Roman Catholics amid pomp and pageantry at a packed St. Joseph Cathedral. Little did the new bishop know that his work in Boston as one of Law's top aides charged with handling sexually abusive priests loomed as a liability. That fact would nearly topple his episcopacy and damage many Catholics' trust in his leadership and faith in their church.
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| Phil Cogswell, who says he's a victim of clergy abuse, was among nearly 50 protesters outside Saint Joseph Cathedral before the annual Red Mass in 2004. |
McCormack, 73, is now the senior Roman Catholic prelate in New England. He not only outlasted Law, who resigned in 2002 at the height of the clergy sexual abuse scandal, but withstood the hue and cry for his own resignation that immediately followed Law's departure.
"He rode out that storm remarkably well and it's sort of a personal testament to his leadership style," said Michele M. Dillon, University of New Hampshire sociology professor.
The very fact that McCormack is still here may be his greatest achievement, given few would have been surprised if he resigned or sought reassignment elsewhere, she said.
"McCormack is not a leading light among U.S. bishops. But he has managed, within his diocese, to maintain his stature. He won back, I guess you could say, his credibility to lead the diocese," added Dillon, who studies religion and has written extensively on the Catholic church.
As a result, McCormack likely will not bear the same stigma as Law, she said.
"It will be like a passing incident or episode that has to be noted, but it won't end up defining his legacy," Dillon said.
Learning from suffering
McCormack concedes he considered resigning after Law left in December 2002.
He said his decision to stay not only was a personally transformative experience, but one rooted in his vision of the bishop's role as a shepherd who does not abandon his flock.
"Resignation really isn't part of what it means to be Christian," the Massachusetts native explained last week during an interview at his North River Road residence, where he is recovering from open-heart surgery performed Aug. 29.
"Being a member of the church is being a member of the family of God ... Like any family, when things aren't working out or things have gone sour, you address it and you try to heal the wounds and you try to set things right," he added.
Month after month, protesters heaped shame and insults on the bishop and demanded his resignation during demonstrations and group meetings. When McCormack came to a church to celebrate confirmation, parishioners said Catholics positioned themselves in pews, hissing "Resign!" when he processed down the aisle.
The bishop says the anguish he felt not only drew him "closer to the Lord," but made him a "wiser" person who is "more sensitive to the pain of others."
"You know what I learned from all this? Suffering emits love," the bishop added.
"Anyone who suffers has an ability to say, 'How am I going to respond?' Am I going to curse the darkness? Or am I going to embrace the reality and learn to love others," McCormack said.
McCormack thanked those who stood and worked with the church through its darkest days while also being understanding of Catholics troubled by the crisis.
"I'm sure there is a good number of people who have a clouded view of the Catholic church and of me because of the sexual abuse scandal and they have difficulty in seeing the goodness in the church because of it," McCormack said.
"It's a wound and it's a sorrow in my heart because of all that has gone on how it has affected others," he said.
McCormack, who has apologized repeatedly for his handling of some priests who sexually abused children while he was an aide to Law in the Boston archdiocese, had been faulted by that state's attorney general for not appreciating how dangerous pedophile priests could be.
"What's so difficult is that some priests, and you will talk to people who have been abused who will say they (priests) were wonderful in their ministry in so many ways. At the same time, they were leading this evil, double life," McCormack explains.
"Some were predators. Other priests probably (did it) once or twice or a few times, but it doesn't excuse it at all. So I was disillusioned to know there were some priests who were doing it as a practice. I can't get over that," he added.
McCormack refused to name them.
"I wouldn't do that. No," he said. "But I could. Yeah."
An example to Catholics
Carol Jacques-Dow, pastoral associate at Corpus Christi Parish in Portsmouth, said McCormack's decision to stay was a "good example to all Catholics."
"You can't lead only when things are easy. You have to also lead when things are difficult and you have to find the way. You have to be patient and you have to discern what is the right thing to do and he certainly did that," Jacques-Dow said.
McCormack, who underwent open-heart surgery at Catholic Medical Center hours after doctors discovered four blocked arteries, plans to celebrate his 10th anniversary as bishop of Manchester mostly at home in prayer and celebrating Mass. If he feels well enough, he said he hopes to briefly stop by the diocesan offices and will "try to squeeze in a hot fudge sundae somewhere."
The bishop said his recovery is going well. Last week he began doing limited work at home. He said he also is back to his 30-minute daily walks. But he said he expects it will take several weeks before he can resume a full work schedule and celebrate Mass publicly.
"I'm grateful to so many people for their prayers for me at this time," he said.
The last decade also has been one of the most challenging in church history because of the declining number of priests and consolidation of parishes; both have reshaped church life here and nationally.
McCormack has made his mark as a strong administrator and bishop whose strong pastoral presence has inspired his priests during a period when their numbers are in rapid decline, said David Lamarre-Vincent, executive director of the New Hampshire Council of Churches.
"The clergy here love him dearly now ... because he is so pastoral in a time of rapid change in the churches of New Hampshire," Lamarre-Vincent said. "He has been very sensitive to their need to not work themselves to death, but at the same time be good pastors."
Fewer priests
The bishop launched a reconfiguration of the entire diocese several years ago to cope with fewer priests and shifting demographics. There were 130 parishes and 37 missions in the diocese when McCormack took over, diocesan spokesman Patrick McGee said. As a result of mergers, unifications and "twinnings" undertaken since, 102 parishes and 16 missions remain, he said.
And today there are less than 100 active diocesan priests compared to 158 in 1998. The diocese projects their numbers will dwindle to about 75 in 2012.
"For his successor, he has created a diocese that is in very good shape except for things beyond his control, which is primarily the number of clergy," Lamarre-Vincent said.
Another hallmark of McCormack's episcopacy is the creation of a lay ministry program and his outreach to new groups of immigrants and refugees who moved to New Hampshire, particularly among those coming from Africa, Lamarre-Vincent said.
Since 2002, McCormack has been traveling to every parish across the diocese, where he spends a day in talks with the pastor and parishioners. McCormack said he would have completed the entire roster of parishes this fall had he not undergone heart surgery. He said he still has to visit about 15 parishes.
McCormack said he plans to create a new diocesan office of parish services within the next year that will support parishes in teaching and promoting the faith.
"It's not easy to believe today. It's not easy to love. It's not easy to forgive or to be understanding or to be generous. Yet, this is what it is to be Catholic. So the more a parish or a school promotes that and weaves it into their life, the more attractive that parish is going to be," he said.
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