New Nsw Bishop Daunted but Optimistic, by Anthony Barich, The Record, April 20, 2011

New Nsw Bishop Daunted but Optimistic

By Anthony Barich
The Record
April 20, 2011

http://www.therecord.com.au/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2496&Itemid=27

Bishop-designate William J Wright, 58, pictured in a 2009 photo, was named the new Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle by Pope Benedict XVI on 4 April.

A US-born priest appointed to lead the Maitland-Newcastle diocese is optimistic about the future despite his predecessor retiring early after he admitted to feeling "battered and worn out" after dealing with the sexual abuse scandal.

Maitland-Newcastle Bishop Michael J Malone, now 71, wrote to the Pope in 2009 appealing for an early retirement and a coadjutor Bishop, or successor, after struggling to cope with the Church's sexual abuse crisis for "15 difficult years".

While no coadjutor Bishop had since been named, Pope Benedict announced on 4 April that Fr William Wright, 58, will take up his appointment as the eighth Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle within two months, to be consecrated at Sacred Heart Cathedral on 15 June.

Bishop-elect Wright was born in Washington DC on 26 October 1952 while his father Jack was on a two-year secondment as an economist for the Australian Central Bank (now the Reserve Bank).

Bishop Malone said, in a 4 April statement, he feels "great relief" to retire, and that the diocese "presents the new leader with difficult issues."

In a communiqué issued 3 February to his diocese, Bishop Malone wrote: "While our diocese has achieved much in recent years, the profile of the Church has suffered and our mission has been compromised because of the events we have faced."

One of Bishop Malone's first acts upon being consecrated Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle in 1995 was to end the priesthood of one of the Hunter region's most notorious paedophile priests, Denis McAlinden, letters obtained by The Newcastle Herald revealed.

Bishop-elect Wright admitted that while it is "daunting" being appointed Bishop of a diocese that "has been one of the Australian hotspots" for sexual abuse issues, he is optimistic about the future.

"It's not an enormous black cloud. You don't go into these things with a martyr complex, but I'm taking up this new position conscious that there are great challenges in it," he told The Record on 5 April.

"A good deal of damage has been done but there are a good number of great people of faith and goodness dearly wishing that such bad things never happened.

"There are many people who have great will and resource to do their best for the future of a community that believes in and represents the best in human life," Bishop Wright said.

There are people who want to build a new future for the Church - "not as an interest group but for the Church as a community of people who support each other though good and bad and stand for something good and wholesome in life. That means recovering from lots of shocks to the system," he said.