New guard in US Catholic church

There was plenty of pomp at the installation of Boston's new archbishop in the city's soaring stone cathedral Wednesday - gladiolus and rose bouquets, Knights of Columbus in feather-topped Napoleonic hats, and a proclamation from the pope himself.

But it was also a toned-down affair, as designed by the central figure, Sean O'Malley, a man who favors peasantlike brown robes and Pizza Hut over power lunches. There were two red-robed cardinals - not the usual 15 or so. Prayers were said in eight languages, including Creole, which Bishop O'Malley speaks. Afterward, instead of a hotel-ballroom feast, there were finger sandwiches and punch served under a tent outside.

O'Malley's arrival signals not just a character shift at the helm of Boston's most vaunted and vilified church, but also a substantial change in the wider leadership of America's Roman Catholic Church. More bishops are set to retire this year - mostly due to age - than at any time in recent memory. With O'Malley as a prototype, replacements tend to cut younger, more open profiles. Yet they're also conservative on theology and church reform, with close ties to the Vatican.

It all raises, observers say, central questions facing Catholics: Will the new leaders help revive credibility within the church? Will they embrace or be a bulwark against reform? Will their orthodoxy clash with calls from pews and wider American society for more openness and accountability? "The profile is that these new bishops are liberal on social justice, conservative on doctrine, and conservative on change," says Richard McBrien, a theologian at the University of Notre Dame.

O'Malley, for instance, once moved into a cockroach-infested Washington, D.C., apartment to prevent eviction of the building's immigrant tenants. He speaks the languages of his parishioners - Portuguese, Creole, and Spanish. And he takes friends, parishioners, even fellow bishops to low-brow restaurants like Roy Rogers and Pizza Hut.

Yet even as he built a national reputation for fixing scandal-plagued dioceses, he came under fire for not releasing names of some abusive priests, and for using the statute of limitations to shield them. He is also a protégé of Boston's former leader, Cardinal Bernard Law, still highly influential at the Vatican.

O'Malley's replacement in Palm Beach, Fla., Bishop Gerald Barbarito, is also fairly young - and known for traipsing around his upstate New York diocese and chatting with struggling farmers.

In Philadelphia, meanwhile, Archbishop-elect Justin Rigali is a close personal friend of Pope John Paul II who spent years working at the Vatican. He will replace Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, one of about 37 bishops likely to retire this year.

The new bishops' impulse toward social justice - and their desire to revive flagging church attendance - may bring acceptance of changes related to priestly sexual abuse of children. O'Malley has already hired a lawyer known for reaching settlements with abuse victims.

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