STATEMENT FROM STEVE KRUEGER
REGARDING BISHOP O’MALLEY’S
APPOINTMENT AS ARCHBISHOP OF BOSTON

Today, the first day of Bishop O’Malley’s tenure as Archbishop of Boston, is a day of hope for healing and unity for our troubled Archdiocese and for the American Catholic Church, both of which are at a crossroads. What happens here in Boston in the months and years ahead will have a profound impact on the Church in this country, and all eyes are upon us.

In the past 18 months, the Archdiocese of Boston has become all-too-well known as the epicenter of the clergy sexual abuse crisis. Yet traditionally, the Archdiocese has been of great historical and academic importance to the American Church. It has been a crucible for U.S. Church leaders, an intellectual center, and a vital link between the U.S. Church and the Vatican. It is against this backdrop of both past history and current turmoil that Bishop O’Malley assumes leadership.

We welcome Bishop O’Malley to the Archdiocese of Boston. His record and experience as a proven “fixer” are gratefully acknowledged and sorely needed by the hurting Catholics of the Archdiocese – lay and survivor, clerical and religious. We hope, pray, and expect that Bishop O’Malley will apply the charisms and values of his Franciscan spiritual tradition to the challenges of healing and unifying our Archdiocese.

As our new Archbishop, Bishop O’Malley faces unique and unprecedented challenges and opportunities. Among his many challenges are the facts that:

• The problems of the Archdiocese are beyond the scope of any one person’s capabilities and experience
• The “old” model of top-down decision making will not work in solving our problems in Boston: survivors, laypersons, and parish clergy must be included in the solution to the problems confronting this Archdiocese
• The scope of this crisis calls for a new, inclusive solution developed by the entire community of the faithful in the Archdiocese

The hopeful aspect of this moment in the crisis is that Bishop O’Malley has enormous opportunities for:

• Reaching out to survivors, parish clergy, and laypersons – including Voice of the Faithful, whose members are among the most active and devoted parishioners in the Archdiocese – for unity and healing
• Demonstrating fidelity and commitment to the official Church teachings of Vatican II, which state:
  
  • “ [The laity] are, by knowledge, competence or outstanding ability which they may enjoy, permitted and sometimes even obliged to express their opinion on those things which concern the good of the Church.”
    
• Developing new ways of including all the constituencies in the healing process by creating a “four-sided table” where survivors, parish clergy, laypersons, and the hierarchy can meet to listen to one another and solve problems together
  
• Continuing the work of Bishop Lennon and the survivors in reaching an expeditious, fair and just global settlement to lawsuits

Risks to the healing process for the Archdiocese include these:

• If people are not brought together, the crisis will be compounded, rather than repaired
• It is necessary to think collectively and in unity; institution-centric solutions have largely discouraged the collaboration process, but it is collaboration that is desperately needed here

Again, we welcome Bishop O’Malley to Boston. We will communicate with him soon to offer our sincere help in bringing resolution, understanding, healing, and spiritual peace to the Boston Archdiocese. One way to accomplish this has been suggested by St. Francis, the patron, inspiration, and guardian of Bishop O’Malley’s Capuchin Franciscan order:

“Start by doing what’s necessary…
then what’s possible …
and suddenly you’re doing the impossible.”

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