At Least We Know What We're Getting with Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley

By Margery Eagan
Boston Herald
March 12, 2013

http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/columnists/margery_eagan/2013/03/eagan_at_least_we_know_what_we_re_getting_with

[with video]

I’m no fan of the Catholic hierarchy. Still, I have to admit, I’ve been swept up in Sean-for-Pope frenzy.

“It’s easy to get giddy about our own cardinal,” said one of Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley’s toughest critics,­ Terry McKiernan. He’s co-founder with Anne Barrett Doyle of BishopAccountability.­org, an encyclopedic website detailing all that bishops and cardinals have not done to fix the abuse crisis.

McKiernan’s admission made me feel less like a sappy hometown pushover.

Besides, of all the prelates entering today’s papal conclave, our own Cardinal Sean, as he calls himself on his not very sprightly blog, may be the least offensive of an offensive, ethically challenged crew, particularly regarding abuse.

And the church, many of us believe, has reached the point when it has to fix the abuse mess or its other­ agendas are doomed. From this perspective, O’Malley has a clear advantage. He’s cleaned up clergy sex abuse in Fall River, Palm Beach, Fla., and Boston. And he’s been thoroughly vetted. No deep dark secrets are likely to emerge later.

“He’s been forced to confront all of this,” McKiernan said. “A sort of accountability has been forced upon him.”

And while not probable, it is possible, McKier­nan added, that, as pope, “with no one to answer to but God, he might be better” than he’s been.

Picking O’Malley also avoids the hellish scenario of electing a dark-horse pope whose dirty laundry gets exposed a year or two down the road.

The downside for O’Malley, alas, is significant. SNAP, the national abuse survivors group, placed him on its “dirty dozen” list. BishopAccountability.­org, which praised O’Mal­ley for tough talk on abuse in Rome, still trashes him for not taking reforms far enough.

Many of us see O’Malley less as a re­former than a fixer, anyway. Some suspect his sandals and Capuchin Franciscan brown robes are mere PR.

Dorchester Rev. Gene Rivers told me today that O’Malley has rarely ventured into the black community, unlike his predecessor, the now-disgraced Cardinal Bernard Law.

Meanwhile, Peter Borre, who’s fought parish closings here and is now covering his fifth papal conclave, said word among the “115 self-described celibates” is that O’Malley has “caught a hellacious case of Tiber Fever,” even though our cardinal claims otherwise.

Borre also joked that the 11 American cardinals have annoyed their brethren by holding daily, chatty press conferences (since shut down) and riding around Rome in a special minibus.

But I end with a gift for those still steamed at Cardinal Law. Borre heard a reporter yelling to him, “What do you expect from the conclave?”

Law said nothing.

So Borre boomed out, “Absolution!”

“It got a laugh from the crowd,” Borre said, “and a glare from Bernie.”