Why is it when a priest or bishop retires for some malfeasance his successor never has the good taste to simply not mention him at all, but instead lauds him for his service. Cardinal Law did it with notorious perverts, Archbishop Dolan did it with Weakland, and now Archbishop Sheehan does it for O’Brien.
On behalf of the Church, I thank Bishop Thomas J. O’Brien for his service. He has been a dear friend and a brother bishop. Under his leadership, the diocese has grown. And now we pray for him in his time of darkness.
Leadership, huh? Some victims of abuse in the diocese might dispute whether his leadership was a good thing. And like Grahmann in Dallas, who took credit for his diocese’s growth, it doesn’t take a lot of leadership to have tens of thousands of Catholics move into your neighborhood. It’s not like he personally requested Mexicans to cross the border and “snowbirds” to move down from the great white north.
By the way, wasn’t it Archbishop Sheehan who was the rector of the Dallas seminary that ignored warnings about Rudy Kos and let him in? (Kos’ subsequent predations led to the largest singly civil judgment against a diocese ever.)
Pace whatever your mom used to say, the more common saying is “If you can’t think of something nice to say, say nothing.”
I’m sure it’s all nice and good to thank the guy for his “wonderful years of leadership” except nobody believes that he’s given wonderful leadership, least of all those people harmed by his malfeasance. So thanking him seems to be a slap in the face to those people, just as was when Law thanked Geoghan and Shanley and all the other abusers.