'Passing on Faith' Is Key Challenge
By Michael Paulson
Boston Globe
March 19, 2006
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/
2006/03/19/omalley_many_signs_of_hope/
Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley, preparing to accept the red hat that completes his transformation from humble friar to prince of the church, says the Archdiocese of Boston is at an important "moment of transition," facing extraordinary challenges posed to its most basic missions by a searing crisis and a secular culture.
In a rare, wide-ranging interview, O'Malley said the Catholic Church can no longer rely on its position of authority to transmit its teachings on moral values, but instead must turn increasingly to persuasion in an effort to convince a skeptical society of the merits of Christian faith.
"One of the greatest tragedies of the sexual abuse crisis is that it undermines our capacity to teach the hard points of the Gospel," he said.
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"Certainly we don't want to drive people out of the church, but we do want to bring people closer to the truth that is proclaimed in the church," O'Malley said. Photo by the Suzanne Kreiter / Globe Staff |
O'Malley, who on Friday in Rome will be elevated to cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI, insisted that he sees "signs of hope" amid all the bad news -- young men considering entering the priesthood, thousands of adults attending conferences on faith, civic power brokers stepping up to help. And he pledged to implement a series of changes in coming weeks, including the replacement of some of the key officials who oversee the archdiocese; full disclosure of the archdiocese's financial situation; a reorganization of the parochial school system; and improved assistance to parishes.
But the 61-year-old archbishop, who was installed in Boston in 2003, acknowledged the negative effects, for the church and for him personally, of the staggering array of challenges facing the storied but struggling church of Boston. His first 32 months here have been made difficult not only by the deep damage to trust, finances, and participation caused by the sexual abuse crisis, but also by controversy over the closings of 62 of 357 parishes, and, more recently, division over the church's opposition to adoptions by gay households. Each controversy has caused some Catholics to leave the church, causing O'Malley to say in the interview that the biggest challenge facing the archdiocese today is "passing on the faith."
"There's no quick fix, and what we've been through as a local church has been very serious, and has very, very deep effects," O'Malley said. "But, as I say, I see many signs of hope."
During the hourlong interview at the chancery in Brighton, O'Malley appeared to be in far better spirits, and more engaged, than on the day he was named a cardinal, Feb. 22, when he was somber and retiring in a conference call with the news media. Aides say he is pleased to be making progress on a number of difficult issues facing the archdiocese, including within the last two weeks reaching a settlement with 88 victims of clergy abuse and announcing that the Vatican had defrocked seven priests and a deacon accused of abuse.
Asked about his assignment to Boston, O'Malley said, "It's challenging. There's times when it's very exciting, but other times when it's overwhelming. But it's never boring.
"Sometimes the problems weigh heavily upon me," he said. "But I don't think I've been depressed."
O'Malley spoke emotionally and passionately, particularly when he was defending church teachings. His eyes appeared to water as he offered his view of the "tragic moment" that led the social services arm of the archdiocese, Catholic Charities, to end its 103-year participation in the adoption business rather than continue to comply with a state requirement that adoption agencies not discriminate against same-sex households.
"Particularly at a time when marriage is threatened, it's very important that the church's teaching on the institution of marriage be reflected in our works of mercy and our social services," he said.
O'Malley said the debate over same-sex marriage, which the church opposes, has made it essential for the church to be consistent in its handling of adoption placements. Although in the past Catholic Charities has placed a small number of children in gay households, the Vatican in 2003 called such adoptions "gravely immoral" in a document outlining its opposition to legal recognition of same-sex unions.
"I know that many people would cast our actions as mean-spirited or to denigrate people," he said. "But it is our desire to be faithful to that love that is the very core and reason for our church and our religion, that we must love God, obey his commandments, and try and create a civilization of love."
Asked whether he personally agrees with the teaching, O'Malley said, "This is a very clear teaching. And it's not one that would admit of dissent in the church."
The archbishop said he rues the tone of much of the debate that takes place within the church and society -- a debate that has been coarsened and amplified by the proliferation of blogs and e-mail.
"Very often people disagree with the church [and] they're very quick to misrepresent what the church is doing or saying, and are very quick to impute the very worst motives to people," he said. "I certainly wish that there was a little more charity in the discourse of people who disagree."
But O'Malley said he does not want people who disagree to leave the church; rather, he wants "to bring people closer to the truth."
"For the longest time, the church taught from a basis of authority," he said. "In today's world, we need to use more persuasion."
O'Malley expressed anger, and a willingness to engage in civil disobedience, over a congressional immigration reform measure that he denounced for what he said is its suggestion that churches link the provision of services to immigrants to a request to see legal documents. The Catholic Church's opposition to the measure came to national attention on Ash Wednesday, when Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles blasted the proposal.
"We can not deport 11 million people, and it is outrageous to expect that the church or private organizations are going to act as some sort of vigilantes to identify undocumented workers," O'Malley said. "I mean, it's just not going to happen."
He acknowledged "mistakes of methodology" in the closing of 62 parishes since 2004, but said, "I don't think we had a lot of choice." The closings process was highly contentious, and has led to multiple lawsuits, canon law challenges, and the ongoing occupation of six closed churches by protesters.
And, less than a year after he responded, "There's nothing I can say," to a question about his predecessor, Cardinal Bernard F. Law, in last week's interview O'Malley was clearly ready to talk.
"Certainly I understand that there are people who are angry and upset because of things that transpired in the archdiocese that resulted in Cardinal Law's tendering his resignation," O'Malley said, referring to Law's resignation in 2002 over criticism of his failure to remove sexually abusive priests from ministry.
He forcefully denied concern voiced by some critics that Law plays any ongoing role in administering the archdiocese, saying the former archbishop has "never" provided advice on personnel or other key decisions.
"Cardinal Law is no longer the archbishop of Boston," he said. "I am."
O'Malley is in some ways an unusual choice to head the nation's fourth-largest diocese. He is a Capuchin Franciscan friar, took a vow of poverty and expected to live his life among the poor, and has repeatedly been assigned to other dioceses, an unusual career path for bishops.
He called his elevation to the college of cardinals, with its sumptuous vestments, lofty titles, and extra privileges, an "anomaly" for a friar. O'Malley will be only the 10th Capuchin friar ever to serve as a cardinal, and the first since Archbishop Antonio Maria Barbieri of Montevideo, Uruguay, was elevated in 1958.
"I don't like the hoopla and will try to avoid as much of it as I can," said O'Malley, who prefers to wear a brown, hooded friar's habit and sandals, has no personal possessions, and lives in a rectory at the cathedral since selling the archbishop's mansion to give settlements to abuse victims.
He said he will wear the vestments of a cardinal at important church functions and worship services, and will respect the office, but also that, "I've always tried to observe what the church expects of us, but my preference is to try and maintain a simple lifestyle."
O'Malley, whose new red robes symbolize a willingness to shed blood for the church, noted that his fellow Capuchin bishops, who mostly serve in the developing world, have faced physical danger as a result of their positions. He said he does not expect to face such danger himself, but there are other challenges here in Boston.
"It's unlikely that I will experience a bloody persecution, but there's always more subtle forms of persecution that people have to endure for their beliefs and to be able to witness to the Gospel," he said. "At times, I think the dominant culture, the secular culture, does trivialize our beliefs, and at times ridicules them. . . . There were many worse forms of persecution. But, I think that there are many forms of persecution, and certainly one of them is to be ridiculed."
The tension between the secular, liberal, and consumerist values of the West and the values of the Catholic Church has been a frequent theme of O'Malley's preaching, and he returned to that theme during the interview.
"The church cannot allow itself to be assimilated into the secular culture around us, and sometimes I think that some of our Catholics have been so influenced by their culture, and then are upset when the church doesn't follow the same path of assimilation, rather than one of giving prophetic witness to a different message, that is the message of the Gospel," he said.
Michael Paulson can be reached at mpaulson@globe.com.
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