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	Erikson Hopes to Heal Archdiocese Cardinal's Choice Says He Brings Fresh Perspective By Michael Paulson Boston Globe April 6, 2006 http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/ 2006/04/06/erikson_hopes_to_heal_archdiocese/ The new second-in-command at the Archdiocese of Boston, the Rev. Richard M. Erikson, said yesterday that he was chosen because he was not a part of the archdiocesan administration throughout the clergy abuse crisis, and that he will bring a fresh perspective to the problems afflicting the Catholic Church here. Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley yesterday announced that he has tapped Erikson, a 47-year-old military chaplain, to assume the jobs of vicar general and moderator of the curia at archdiocesan headquarters. Those posts, which are akin to the job of a chief operating officer at a business, are currently held by Bishop Richard G. Lennon, who was named on Tuesday by Pope Benedict XVI to become the next bishop of Cleveland. Erikson, a Watertown native whose home parish is St. Luke's in Belmont, has been serving in the military for 14 years, the last seven on active duty. In 2004, he volunteered to go to Iraq when a Catholic chaplain there needed to return home to care for his mother. "Our men and women need priests, they need the sacraments," Erikson told reporters during a conference call yesterday, as he recalled ministering to injured soldiers of all faiths who had been wounded in the Sunni triangle. "I am a noncombatant -- I am forbidden to, and have no desire to, pick up a weapon -- and it's very humbling when people fire at you and you are not able to, or have no desire to, fire back," he said. He declined to express an opinion about the Iraq war, but said, "the men and women of our military are heroes." Erikson's duties in Boston will include the day-to-day oversight of the sprawling archdiocese, which claims nearly 2 million baptized Catholics in 144 cities and towns, and which is struggling with multiple problems including deficit spending, demoralized priests, and ongoing controversies over parish closings, the clergy abuse crisis, and sexual ethics. The job has become particularly important because O'Malley's first love is preaching, not administration, and because O'Malley's new duties as a cardinal are expected to require him to spend more time traveling outside the archdiocese. Erikson's current title is staff chaplain, plans and programs, Office of the Chief of Chaplains at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington. He said he had met O'Malley only three times and had spent no more than 75 minutes speaking with the archbishop before the current round of conversations about serving as vicar general began. He said he expects to start his new job around June 15, depending on when he is released from the military. Asked about challenges facing the archdiocese, he said, "The word that comes to my mind is healing. There has been enormous pain in the Archdiocese of Boston over these past years, and what the diocese needs as a whole is healing, and also trust and confidence. The trust and confidence in the church, as lived out in the Archdiocese of Boston, has been shaken." Erikson said he sees a major role for laypeople in the archdiocese. "I see laypeople as at the heart of decision-making in an archdiocese," he said. "I would anticipate that there will be a new level of lay involvement in archdiocesan leadership and decision-making in the days and months to come." Asked about relations between the chancery and priests, Erikson said one of his jobs in the Air Force was to serve as liaison between the chief of chaplains and Catholic priests serving as chaplains. "The reason I'm coming home is love of Christ, the church, Boston, and the priesthood," he said. "I can be a priest who will care for priests." Erikson is a graduate of St. Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., and has a PhD in sociology from the University of Southern California. He taught at St. John's Seminary in Brighton before going to work for the military full-time; he has served on military bases in Alabama, California, Florida, Guam, Illinois, Michigan, and New Hampshire. Erikson is the author of "Late Have I Loved Thee: Stories of Religious Conversion and Commitment in Later Life." According to a 2003 newsletter of the Archdiocese of Military Services, Erikson is also a music buff who has written liner notes for Andy Williams and Bobby Vinton CDs. Michael Paulson can be reached at mpaulson@globe.com.
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