Mar 21, 2006 4:34 pm US/Eastern
O'Malley's Elevation A Surprise To Many
by Lisa Hughes
(CBS4)
On Friday, Boston Archbishop, Sean O'Malley will join the ranks of cardinals in the Roman Catholic Church.
O'Malley and William Levada, the former Archbishop of San Francisco will add to an already large group of American cardinals. Vatican expert John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter says Archbishop O'Malley's elevation is a special endorsement by Pope Benedict XVI.
"O'Malley becoming a cardinal is actually a rather improbable event," Allen says. And one that surprised Allen because many Catholics feel there are already too many American cardinals. Come Friday, there will be 194 cardinals, 15 of which will be American.
Allen suspects even with that criticism, the pope wants to send a clear message to the Boston Archdiocese. "The fact that he chose to put O'Malley into this group, I think, is his way of saying, regardless of what the politics are I want you all to understand that I am still thinking about you."
Cardinal-designate O'Malley, Allen says, is also in essence an ambassador. "Historically the cardinals have been the pope's most important window unto the national church that they come from."
Cardinals are expected to serve as good will ambassadors around the world. But Allen believes the pope will respect O'Malley's request to spend most of his time in Boston. "My guess is that he is going to be very sensitive to that, because obviously there is a truckload of work that has to be done in Boston."
Namely, the work of uniting an archdiocese splintered by a sex abuse crisis that exploded under O'Malley's predecessor, Bernard Cardinal Law. Allen says many people in Rome believe Law was made a scapegoat for that crisis. He calls that an example of the cultural gap between the Vatican and the United States.
"A lot of American Catholics fairly or unfairly have concluded that Cardinal Law is in a way the living symbol of the crisis, and that as long as he continues to have some sort of public role in the church they will believe the church has not learned the lessons of the crisis."
Asked whether Cardinal Law has any role in the Boston Archdiocese, O'Malley said no, in fact the two rarely speak. But just as all the cardinals will exchange a greeting in St. Peter's Square on Friday, Law and O'Malley will also exchange a greeting of peace.
CBS4's Lisa Hughes will be in Rome all week, leading up to Friday's elevation ceremony. You can watch that ceremony live Friday morning at 4:30am on CBS4 and CBS4Boston.com.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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