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	Plan to "Celebrate" Bishop's Life Ill-advised The Arizona Republic November 21, 2011 http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/2011/11/19/20111119bishops-life-editorial.html History is filled with great public figures who stumbled in some regrettable way, sullying an otherwise remarkable career. A certain football coach at Penn State comes to mind at the moment. In many respects, so does a certain former bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Phoenix. Neither Joe Paterno nor the Rev. Thomas J. O'Brien ought to be remembered exclusively for the scandals that ended long, impressive careers. But neither must those scandals be for-gotten. For years as the Phoenix bishop, O'Brien tried to downplay the terrible deeds of pedophile priests in his diocese, even moving suspected offenders to unsuspecting parishes. And near the very end of his public life, he was involved in a fatal car accident from which he left the scene. The Catholic Community Foundation, which seeks to honor O'Brien at its annual gala next April, wants to ignore all that. Laudably enough, it wishes to celebrate the man who founded the organization 27 years ago. But to do so, it must pass a blind eye to a lot of ugly recent history. And isn't that what got Bishop O'Brien in such difficulty in the first place? By choosing now to celebrate the accomplishments of Bishop O'Brien, the foundation is reopening a lot of wounds. The choice does a disservice to the victims of those predators and the victims' families -- and to the diocese that now must relive those terrible, recent days. And it badly serves O'Brien himself, whose many fine deeds at least have earned him a peaceful retirement in which he can contemplate a life's work, both good and ... not so good. The foundation's intentions may be good, but it has been grossly ill-advised to "celebrate" the life of Thomas O'Brien, especially so near the wake of terrible things the bishop made worse, not better.
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