Pope Names New Bishop for Diocese of 1.5 Million

By Al Baker
New York Times
June 27, 2001

Rockville Centre, N.Y. -- To serve as spiritual leader of Long Island's 1.5 million Roman Catholics, Pope John Paul II today appointed William Francis Murphy, an auxiliary bishop in Boston described by his colleagues as a smart, exuberant man with a deep interest in social justice.

At a news conference here, Bishop Murphy, 61, said he humbly accepted the job as the fourth bishop of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, one of the nation's 10 largest and a diocese that has had three leaders in the last two years. The diocese, founded in 1957, has been without a bishop since the death of Bishop James T. McHugh on Dec. 10, less than a year after he succeeded Bishop John R. McGann, who retired.

Bishop Murphy, who will be installed on Sept. 5, described himself as an advocate for the poor and for women. While he said he agreed with the pope that women and married men should not be ordained as priests -- and predicted that those two policies would not change in his lifetime -- Bishop Murphy said he would like to provide a greater role for women in the church.

Specifically, he said he would consider naming a woman as chancellor -- the bishop's archivist and notary and, in many American dioceses, the official responsible for general church administration and sacramental matters.

Today, as Bishop McGann and other high-ranking church officials looked on, Bishop Murphy deftly touched on subjects both serious and trivial. He evoked laughter from a roomful of reporters when he was asked whether his Boston roots would bar him from rooting for the Yankees or the Mets. "Ah," he said with a smile. "I want to tell you, I don't know how to spell 'Red Sox.' But I have a feeling that my heart will beat faster for both the Yankees and the Mets. But it depends on which friends lead me where."

While the diocese is in the black, and not facing the difficult financial decisions of other dioceses, like closing parish schools, it does face several challenges. Top among those, Bishop Murphy said, is a need to recruit more men and women for religious vocations.

The diocese also needs to attract more teenagers, young adults and people of various cultures, said Msgr. John A. Alesandro, who has been diocesan administrator since the death of Bishop McHugh.

As auxiliary bishop in Boston since 1995, and as vicar general and moderator of the curia since 1993, Bishop Murphy has been a troubleshooter for Cardinal Bernard Law, working as a kind of chief operating officer, overseeing the day-to-day functions of the administration.

Recently, he has been involved in the often emotional process of merging and closing parishes. But some in Boston who know him said he had eased the process with a gregarious personality, a sense of humor and humility.

Others described Bishop Murphy as a supporter of women.

"He treats women with the utmost respect and admires their ability and talent, and is able to bring out the best in all people," said Donna M. Morrissey, whom Bishop Murphy recruited five months ago as a cabinet secretary for public relations and communications for the Archdiocese of Boston -- and the first woman to be a lay cabinet member in the archdiocese's history.

Bishop Murphy was born in West Roxbury, Mass., and was ordained a priest in 1964. He studied in Rome, receiving a doctorate in systematic theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in 1974. In Vatican City, he served as under secretary to the Pontifical Commission Justitia et Pax, or Justice and Peace.

A prolific writer, he has published a weekly column in The Pilot, the newspaper of the Boston Archdiocese. In Boston, he was the director for the office of social justice and the secretary for community relations for the archdiocese. He said he enjoyed tennis, sailing, art and opera.

He said he strongly opposed abortion. In an article last year for The Pilot, he assailed politicians who supported abortion rights.

Asked today about the acceptance of gays in the church, he said: "I will treat every person with great dignity and with great respect. That doesn't mean that the political agenda of the, quote, gay community, closed quote, is going to be my agenda."

A top priority here, Bishop Murphy said, is to form the kind of "very fruitful" relationships he has with Jews in Boston.

Rabbi Marc Gellman, president of the New York Board of Rabbis and senior rabbi of Temple Beth Torah in Melville, noted that Bishop Murphy tells each of his confirmation students that anti-Semitism has no place in Catholic teaching. The rabbi, who along with Msgr. Thomas J. Hartman is the co-host of a cable television program, "The God Squad," said he was deeply moved by the bishop's sentiment.

"That is a great legacy of tolerance," Rabbi Gellman said.

[Photo Caption: Bishop William Francis Murphy, 61, is the new spiritual leader of the Diocese of Rockville Centre on Long Island. The auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Boston since 1995, he will be installed on Sept. 5.]

Keywords:
Murphy, Bishop Wiliam F.
McHugh, Bishop James T.
McGann, Bishop John R.
Boston, archdiocese of
Rockville Centre, diocese of
appointment of bishop