SANCTIFYING OFFICE

Importance of Sunday Mass

Cardinal Seán O’Malley published a pastoral letter in 2011 on the Solemnity of Christ the King that captures his teaching on the significance and role of Sunday Mass in the lives of believers.

The timing of his letter may have been due in part to the new English translation of the Roman Missal that came out around that time, and in part to the Catholics Come Home initiative that had been launched on Ash Wednesday that year.

In the pastoral letter, O’Malley elaborates on both “Jesus’ eager desire . . . to celebrate this thanksgiving meal with every one of us” and on the two-thousand-year history of Christians’ risking their lives to participate in Sunday Mass. He reiterates the ancient symbolism of sharing a family thanksgiving meal, a Eucharistic meal, with fellow Catholics, and compares Christian discipleship to a lifelong family pilgrimage. In this way, he points out the dangers of an unhealthy individualism that would keep believers from joining the feast.

The cardinal expresses sadness that so many Catholics “choose to be absent from Mass.” He recounts examples of oppressed Catholics in other countries who appreciate “that the Mass is so precious,” and then calls on the faithful to “never take for granted the wonder that is the encounter we have with God each Sunday that we celebrate the Eucharist together.” O’Malley extensively quotes Pope Benedict’s description of what happens at Mass: “Here now is the central act of transformation that alone can truly renew the world. The Body and Blood of Christ are given to us so that we ourselves will be transformed in our turn. We are to become the Body of Christ.” ¹Quoting Benedict’s Homily on the Occasion of the XX World Youth Day, Cologne-Marienfeld, Sunday, 21 August 2005. O’Malley describes the very real efficacy of Mass participation. “The graces and transformative insights God provides in each celebration of Mass help us move toward a happier, holier life.” Quoting St. John Paul II, O’Malley adds that the “Eucharist is a . . . foretaste of the fullness of joy promised by Christ; it is in some way the anticipation of heaven.”²Quoting John Paul II’s 2004 Encyclical on the Eucharist, Ecclesia de Eucharistia (cf. John 15:11).

The cardinal reveals a pastor’s heart in the section of the pastoral letter titled “Particular Messages.” The first is addressed to Catholics who have been away from Sunday Mass. Here O’Malley speaks to Catholics who feel unwelcome at Mass because of “some irregularity or moral struggle.” He reaffirms God’s love and the welcome that the Catholic community desires to give to such persons. The cardinal acknowledges the various reasons why people are not in the pews and then develops two thoughts. First, he speaks plainly of God’s ever-present love for each person, but then he asserts that Church teaching does not change because people disagree with it or have questions about it. He plainly teaches that “an inability to fulfill all aspects of Christian worship or to receive Communion should not keep you from Mass. In fact, the habit of being faithful to the Sunday obligation can provide the actual grace, if you cooperate with it, to give you the strength to overcome current obstacles and find paths of reconciliation. We stand ready to help you.” Here the cardinal charitably yet firmly acknowledges that the reception of the Eucharist is not a “come one, come all” event.

Cardinal O’Malley called on various groups in the Church to take concrete, practical steps to increase Mass attendance. Speaking to priests, he encourages “an emphasis on sacred music” and calls on priests and deacons to carry out their roles “with a deep sense of reverence for the mysteries” they celebrate. He gives thanks and direction to parish councils and staff, Catholic school and religious-education teachers. He asks parents, and fathers in particular, to take an active role in the catechetical formation of their children and to live Sunday as the Lord’s Day. Young people who witness to the joy and richness of the Faith are especially needed.

In 2020, on the feast of the Passion of John the Baptist, Cardinal O’Malley celebrated fifty years of priesthood. Celebrating a Mass with Poor Clare Sisters, the cardinal gave a homily that ended by reflecting on the immense gift of the Eucharist.  “For me, as a priest, the Eucharist has always been what it’s all about,” Cardinal O’Malley said.  Then he invoked the wonder of that gift: “In the Eucharist, Christ, every day, makes a gift of Himself and invites us to be a part of that. …Having begun doing this fifty years ago with the Poor Clares, it’s such a joy to be with your community today, as once again, we celebrate the Eucharist with Eucharistic amazement, realizing how much our Lord loves us and His desire that we be part of His sacrifice.”

Priest as First Responder

In 2013, the Archdiocese of Boston sponsored a campaign to raise funds for the Clergy Health and Retirement Trust. A video was created to highlight several priests serving in various capacities. In his thank-you letter for the $1.4 million raised, and with a nod to the video feature of a priest who serves as a police chaplain, the cardinal explained “that every priest, regardless of his role, serves as a first responder in fulfilling the sacramental and spiritual needs of the body of Christ.” The cardinal did, however, comply with directives to Catholic parishes to cancel all Masses during the coronavirus pandemic.

At the Mass during which he ordained nine men to the priesthood in 2014, the cardinal preached on the Good Shepherd. Referencing the Holy Father’s Chrism Mass homily of that year, he reminded his priests that Christ has anointed them with the oil of gladness and called on them to live with a spirit of missionary joy and to be energetic evangelizers.

O’Malley said of the priest’s role as confessor: “One of the greatest joys of a priest is to bring those words of comfort — Go in peace, your sins are forgiven.” He encouraged his priests to “use the sacrament of God’s mercy” to deepen their own conversion. “The confessional is the emergency room of the field hospital that is the church. Learn to be a man of compassion and mercy so as to help your people experience God’s healing mercy.” The cardinal shows his willingness to utilize the images of the Church that Pope Francis has used, even when such linguistic choices are unusual or particularly striking.

Continuing his emphasis on the Good Shepherd, O’Malley explained: “Too often we lack the courage that shepherding requires. We will find that courage to lead God’s people, only through our prayer life and the support of priestly fraternity. Without Him we can do nothing. Without each other, we can do little.” In conclusion, His Eminence blessed the ordinands thus: “May your ministry abound with the missionary joy, born of giving your life for God’s people and seeking out those who have stormed off, dozed off, or just drifted away. Put them lovingly on your shoulders and rejoice with the Good Shepherd.”

In his pastoral letter on mercy for the Year of Mercy (2016), Cardinal O’Malley urged Catholics to come to the sacrament of Reconciliation. The letter, titled “God’s Mercy Runs to Meet Us,” was published on Divine Mercy Sunday. In it O’Malley explained: “Each confession is an encounter with the merciful Lord, who, like the loving father in the Parable of the Prodigal Son, runs out to meet us and rejoices when we return to him. If we have been away for a long time, like the younger son in the parable, it is now time to ‘come to our senses’ and to realize that we will be better off to be with our Father who loves us.” As he encourages his flock to make a more frequent habit of confessing their sins, the cardinal quotes his dad: “When it’s time to get a haircut, it’s time to go to confession.”

Cardinal O’Malley appears not to be averse to the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, and there is record of his administering the sacrament of Confirmation in the Vetus Ordo in Boston in 2011.

When Pope Benedict XVI’s Summorum Pontificum was released in 2007, liberalizing use of the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, Cardinal O’Malley said: “This document will not result in a great deal of change for the Catholics of the United States. This issue of the Latin Mass is not urgent for our country.”  Fourteen years later, when Pope Francis greatly restricted the Extraordinary Form with Traditionis Custodes, the Boston archdiocese released a statement indicating that Cardinal O’Malley wished “to assure all the faithful of his concern for their spiritual and pastoral needs.” According to the statement, Cardinal O’Malley would be “making no changes to the current practice” at that time in light of “pending consultations.”

GOVERNING OFFICE

Archbishop of Boston

Since Seán O’Malley became archbishop of Boston in 2003, the number of Catholics in the archdiocese decreased from almost 53 percent of the population to 47 percent in 2015. The number of diocesan priests decreased from 867 to 685. The number of parishes decreased from 360 to 289. These statistics track the general decline in numbers of professed Catholics and perhaps, in this diocese, especially because of the fallout from the sexual abuse crisis in the American Catholic Church. The number of permanent deacons, on the other hand, has increased from 246 in 2003 to an all-time high of 280 in 2015. This represents solid growth, especially from the low of 234 deacons in 2006.³To illustrate the recent health of the program, thirteen men were ordained to the diaconate in September 2014, seven in 2017. The diaconate program is ordaining a new class every year. In May of 2018, moreover, seven men were ordained to the priesthood; in 2019 the largest number of new priests in more than twenty years was ordained — thirteen. The cardinal opined on his blog that this was probably the largest ordination class of 2019 in the United States. This is a sign of hope, of course, and of trust in O’Malley as the shepherd of his flock.

In 2019, a Wall Street Journal article reported that in 2017 Cardinal O’Malley had called a meeting with papal advisers regarding inadequacies in living up to the promise of “zero tolerance.” For instance, the article said, “an appeals panel set up by the pope had reduced the punishments of a number of Catholic priests found guilty of abusing minors,” and Cardinal O’Malley had expressed fears of an ensuing scandal. Ultimately, the article implied that key Americans, including Cardinal O’Malley, were perceived as “going too far in tackling sex abuse,” causing a rift with other Vatican officials.

Considered a moderate, conservative-leaning Catholic, O’Malley has long been a consistent advocate for the unborn and for refugees and immigrants. On the eve of his appointment as archbishop of Boston, the Boston Globe described the prelate in these words:

But O’Malley clearly met one key Vatican requirement for the Boston appointment: He has a lengthy and generally admired record for cleaning up dioceses sullied by sex abuse scandals. In 1992, he was appointed to head the Fall River Diocese, which was reeling from disclosure of abuse by the Rev. James R. Porter, and last year, O’Malley was appointed to the Palm Beach Diocese after two bishops in five years resigned after being accused of molesting boys. . . . According to people who know him, O’Malley is an intelligent, spiritual man who speaks many languages. He wears a full beard and the habit of his order: a floor-length brown robe, a long pointed hood (the “capuchin”), sandals, and a white cord with three knots to remind him of his three vows, poverty, chastity, and obedience.

Cardinal Blogger

O’Malley was among the first (if not the first) ordinaries to launch his own blog, which he did shortly after arriving in Boston. He was certainly the first cardinal in the world to launch a personal blog when he did so in 2006. The entries clearly required thought and care on the prelate’s part. Photos, videos, texts of sermons, and talks are accessible there. The blog posts reveal a priest who cares for and instructs the priests, seminarians, members of religious orders, immigrants, parishioners, and employees of his diocese. Even in the reporting of small matters, the cardinal’s blog posts reveal much about his governing initiatives. When he served as bishop of Saint Thomas, for example, Seán O’Malley started a Catholic television station in the Caribbean. Mother Angelica went there to help him. Years later, after she died in 2016, he celebrated a Memorial Mass for Mother Angelica on the feast of Corpus Christi. Elsewhere, the cardinal mentions in his posts the work of Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS) missionaries in campus ministry as well as the ministry and work of Opus Dei members.

Parish Closings

In 2004, during his first year in Boston, then-Archbishop O’Malley followed through on Bishop Richard G. Lennon’s recommendations to close many parishes. Bishop Lennon served as archdiocesan administrator after Cardinal Law resigned in late 2002, and during his tenure, he oversaw the selection process for parish closings. As a result of O’Malley’s actions, sixty-five parishes were closed, five merged with other parishes, and five more were to be kept open for Sunday Mass only. A large number (120) of affiliated buildings were slated to be closed and sold, as were close to a dozen more in Lawrence and Lowell. O’Malley said at the time that money from the closings would not go toward the $85 million settlement reached by the diocese, home to more than five hundred victims of sexual abuse. He did, however, decide “to sell millions of dollars’ worth of archdiocesan property, including the archbishop’s mansion, to settle clergy abuse claims.”

Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors

Cardinal O’Malley has headed the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors since it was set up by Pope Francis in 2014 in response to victims who questioned whether the Church understood the full extent of the problem. The cardinal has been the public face of the commission, but the day-to-day running of it is left to its secretary, Bostonian priest Msgr. Robert Oliver. Frequently the commission is mistaken as an investigative body of abuse crimes, whereas it is primarily preventative and does not deal with individual cases. In its early years, the commission had on its panel, along with experts in child protection, abuse survivors Peter Saunders and Marie Collins. Both were critical of how the Vatican was responding to victims’ concerns, and voluntarily left their associations with the body. The commission has also not had an easy ride fitting in and winning cooperation with other Vatican bodies, and its relationship with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which handles individual cases, is unclear.Furthermore, its most significant proposal — to create an in-house Vatican tribunal to judge cases of bishops who are accused of failing to protect victims — was initially approved by Pope Francis but has since stalled, though not, it seems, because of any fault of the commission or O’Malley’s leadership.

Despite O’Malley’s track record and prominence in the field of dealing with clergy sexual abuse, Pope Francis overlooked him as the American representative on a four-member preparation committee ahead of the Vatican’s 2019 global summit of bishops on child protection. The pope chose Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago instead, although O’Malley was relatively prominent during the meeting itself. He co-chaired a press conference with Cupich during the event and stressed the importance of “transparency” in the United States and the Vatican when it comes to confronting sexual abuse. He was speaking in the context of high-profile abusers such as Theodore McCarrick. The reasons for Francis’ decision not to include O’Malley in the preparation committee are unknown, although The Wall Street Journal speculated that the omission of the cardinal reflected his waning influence with the Pope.

In 2023, commission member Fr. Hans Zollner resigned, criticizing the body for allegedly lacking “responsibility, compliance, accountability, and transparency.” Cardinal O’Malley defended the commission, saying: “I am surprised, disappointed, and strongly disagree with [Zollner’s] publicly-issued assertions challenging the commission’s effectiveness.”

In his 2023 opening remarks for the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, Cardinal O’Malley outlined his vision for “bringing about a culture of prevention and care to prevent sexual abuse.”  He argued that the commission has “established an irreversible path of cultural change in the Church’s handling of sexual abuse,” citing achievements such as the abolition of the pontifical secret in cases involving abuse. He spoke of the ongoing effort to create universal guidelines and an accompanying “audit tool,” and he admitted that the commission was still engaged in the effort to productively collaborate with the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (the commission is now located within the DDF, but Pope Francis promised that the commission would be independent from DDF oversight). In sum, the cardinal expressed optimism about the commission’s future.

Father Rupnik Art

In June 2024, O’Malley told the Vatican to stop using artwork created by Father Marko Rupnik, an ex-Jesuit credibly accused of abusing women religious. In his letter to Vatican dicasteries that govern day-to-day affairs of the Roman Curia, O’Malley expressed hope that “pastoral prudence would prevent displaying artwork in a way that could imply either exoneration or a subtle defense” of those of accused of abuse.

“We must avoid sending a message that the Holy See is oblivious to the psychological distress that so many are suffering,” O’Malley wrote. He took the action after Paolo Ruffini, prefect of the Dicastery for Communication, defended using Rupnik’s art, arguing that removing it wouldn’t help his accusers.

Handling of Two Letters on Abuse

In April 2015, Marie Collins and three other members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors personally handed a letter to O’Malley written by an abuse victim detailing abuse that Chilean Fr. Fernando Karadima had inflicted, and claiming the abuse was witnessed by other clergy members (photographs made public show Collins handing the letter to O’Malley). O’Malley assured Collins he had delivered the letter to the pope, contradicting Pope Francis’ own claims made on a trip to Chile that victims who accused one of those clergy members, Bishop Juan Barros, of knowing about Karadima’s abuse were spreading calumny against him. O’Malley never denied giving the letter. He declined to comment publicly, preferring instead to direct all inquiries to the Vatican.

Another letter, also written in 2015, regards New York priest Fr. Boniface Ramsey, who had detailed accusations against former cardinal and priest Theodore McCarrick and sent them to O’Malley because of his role as head of the child protection commission. In 2018, O’Malley apologized for not seeing the letter. The incident caused some surprise in view of O’Malley’s reputation for advocating “zero tolerance” when it comes to clergy sexual abuse (see more on this in the later section: “Clergy Sexual Abuse: Cleaning Up the Mess”).

Hope in Crisis

In March 2019, Cardinal O’Malley gave a talk to seminarians and young religious in which he was asked to speak about causes for hope in the Church today. Speaking to an audience of hundreds at Catholic University of America, where he is a member of the board of directors, he said:

In this terrible time of crisis, it is only holiness that is going to help the Church move forward. If we are faithful to our formation and faithful in taking care of people, and if our words and actions are paired with the values of the Gospel and what we profess in our faith, only then will we be able to bring healing to our Church and all those who have been wronged by it.

Funeral of Edward Kennedy

Cardinal O’Malley drew controversy in 2009 when he attended the funeral of Edward M. Kennedy. The senator had been a lifelong supporter of abortion. O’Malley defended his decision by appealing for greater civility among Catholics when discussing divisive issues and warned against “harsh judgments” and attributing “the worst motives” to people with whom Catholics have disagreements. Such attitudes, he wrote on his blog, “do irreparable damage to the communion of the Church.” He added: “If any cause is motivated by judgment, anger or vindictiveness, it will be doomed to marginalization and failure.’’

TEACHING OFFICE

New Evangelization

In an interview with the Boston Pilot shortly after his elevation to the cardinalate, O’Malley spoke of the importance of the New Evangelization. The task of evangelization is vital and is “directed not just to the mission ‘ad gentes,’ the foreign mission, but to our own supposedly Christian societies where many people have received the sacraments and yet are not truly on fire with their faith. They don’t understand their faith or live their faith so we need to once again reach out to those who at least are nominally Catholics and invite them to be a part of the community and help them to understand the Church’s teachings.” The cardinal lamented the “privatization of religion” which has seen it become “very sentimental, very personal.” But, O’Malley warned, “Jesus did not come so we can have the ‘warm fuzzies.’ He came to establish a Church, a people, and to give us a mission to recapture that sense of who we are, that we do have a personal vocation.”

In seeking to revitalize a sense of personal vocation through his own work of evangelization, O’Malley is conscious that witness is more powerful than words. “The best way of evangelization is the witness of holiness in the Church where Catholics live a life of discipleship and take the Gospel in all of its radical nature seriously and do that joyfully and lovingly. Because if we are trying to convince people by arguing sort of the peripheral, ethical issues out there, we’ll never convince them.” Evangelization must bring people to know and encounter Christ on a personal level. Personal witness, the cardinal argues, is the most effective means of bringing about that encounter. At the same time, O’Malley takes his role as a teacher seriously and has written and spoken on a wide-ranging array of pressing issues facing the Church.

Right-to-Life Defender

O’Malley issued a strong statement upholding the right to life in response to the enactment of a permissive abortion law in New York and the governor of New York’s comments in support of the law. The governor of New York argued that pro-life Catholics should not try to impose their religion on the country and reflect their views in law. O’Malley, in a statement released on February 9, 2019, countered that “opposition to abortion is not a ‘Catholic issue.’ Abortion, like racism, anti-Semitism, and human trafficking are violations of human rights. Innocent human life should be protected by civil laws.” Defending innocent human life, he added, “is the obligation of all governments and all people whatever their religious affiliation might be or not be.”⁴O’Malley further explained that abortion is a “matter of public morality and the defense of human rights.”

“The eroding of the sacredness of human life is a slippery slope that begins with abortion, moves to euthanasia and then the elimination of the weak, feeble, and the ‘undesirable’ whose lives are not as important and are inconvenient,” O’Malley has argued. “Cheapening human life is to devaluate all life.” The cardinal has, in this instance and many others, witnessed to the truth of Church teaching on the inviolability of human life, even in the face of public opposition and in contradiction to the politics of the day. In the spring of 2019, O’Malley criticized legislative proposals to make abortion access more permissive in the state of Massachusetts. In opposing the legislation, O’Malley emphasized that he does not “seek to impose the Catholic Church’s teachings on a diverse society but wish[es] to help build a society which protects human life from its inception to natural death.”

In 2013, O’Malley spoke with the Catholic Herald to urge Irish Catholics to oppose the abortion lobby seeking to liberalize abortion laws in Ireland. He stated plainly, “Abortion is the taking of an innocent human life; everyone should resist abortion.”

In 2022, upon the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Cardinal O’Malley issued a statement calling the Dobbs v. Jackson decision “deeply significant and encouraging.” In addition to reiterating the moral imperative to oppose abortion, Cardinal O’Malley called for support for women facing a crisis pregnancy or suffering from a previous abortion.  He also pushed for a “wider vision of the multiple threats to human life in our society today,” stating: “All human life deserves moral and legal protection at all times. …It is commonly recognized by those on both sides of the abortion debate that conditions of poverty and injustice have been and are today a major factor contributing to abortions. Those who have opposed and supported Roe can and should find common ground for a renewed commitment to social and economic justice in our country.”

O’Malley’s public witness in defense of human life demonstrates his commitment to the Church’s teaching that there are without-exception negative moral norms (such as “do not kill the innocent”) that bind all people in all places, even those wielding public authority. The cardinal has been a vocal opponent of legislative measures in the United States seeking to legalize physician-assisted suicide and has expressed strong support of Church teaching condemning that practice and euthanasia. In an interview with the National Catholic Register in 2012, O’Malley explained that proposals to legalize physician-assisted suicide (at that time pending in the state of Massachusetts) represent “an encroachment of the culture of death,” a culture that preaches that “the autonomous self needs to be in control of every moment of our lives, and if we aren’t in control, the quality of life is such that we would be better off dead.” He lamented that so-called Death with Dignity movements treat some lives as dispensable and not worth living. This approach “strikes at the heart of the kind of compassion and mercy that the Church is supposed to be about. The sacredness of human life is cheapened by this kind of behavior.”

The cardinal especially lamented that most proposed legislation in this area does not contain any provision calling for psychiatric or psychological evaluations of patients prior to authorization of physician-assisted suicide, despite the fact that studies “indicate that about half of the people dying of cancer become clinically depressed and depression can lead to suicide.” The central moral wrong with physician-assisted suicide (and all the more so with euthanasia), O’Malley explained (quoting John Paul II), is that “to concur with the intention of another person to commit suicide and to help in carrying it out through so-called ‘assisted suicide’ means to cooperate in, and at times to be the actual perpetrator of, an injustice which can never be excused, even if it is requested.”

In dealing with issues related to assisted suicide and euthanasia O’Malley is careful to note that the Church’s teaching “does not say that you must keep people alive by any means; we don’t believe in keeping people alive when they really are dying. But assisted suicide is quite different: This person is dying, so give them poison.” The cardinal also argues that assisted suicide and euthanasia should be prohibited in civil law because permitting them sends pernicious messages to certain vulnerable communities, especially the elderly, the disabled, and the terminally ill. “Once you legalize this choice, it puts pressure on the terminally ill to make that choice. They begin to think, I’m a burden on my family, and I’m using up their resources; so if this is permitted, I should end my life and save my family this grief.” The effect of this sort of thinking on the culture is degrading. The widespread mentality of “complete autonomy,” O’Malley argues, is mistaken. “The truth is that we are very dependent on each other, at the beginning and the end of life in particular. We need other human beings to take care of us. And at different points in our life, we are called upon to be the caretaker. That interdependence is part of being a human being. This whole notion of complete autonomy reflects the extreme individualism of our culture.”

Defense of Teaching on Contraception

O’Malley has defended the Church’s teaching against the use of contraception and opposed practices such as in vitro fertilization (IVF). O’Malley issued a strong condemnation of the Obama administration’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate, which required employers of a certain size, including many Catholic employers and institutions, to offer their employees health insurance coverage that included sterilization, abortion-inducing drugs, and contraception. O’Malley condemned this action for “cast[ing] aside the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States” and “denying to Catholics our Nation’s first and most fundamental freedom, that of religious liberty.” The cardinal notes that complying with the law would cause Catholics to “violate [their] consciences” and that Catholics “cannot simply accept this unjust law now proposed at the federal level.”

In a 2001 pastoral letter, O’Malley noted that “marriage is the only morally acceptable framework for human reproduction.” Human life is a gift, and “in the act of procreation the spouses are called to cooperate with God; therefore, the Church teaches that a child’s coming-to-be should be sought only as a fruit of the spouses’ personal loving union in the marital act.” The marital act, the Church has always taught, entails both unitive and procreative significance. In vitro fertilization does away with the unitive meaning of the marital act, while contraception suppresses the procreative meaning of the conjugal act. In this same pastoral letter, O’Malley repeatedly emphasized the “constant and very clear” teaching of the Church on the respect that must be accorded to human embryos, no less than to all other human life.

Opposition to Same-Sex “Marriage”

O’Malley opposed the legalization of same-sex “marriage” in the United States and has defended the institution of marriage as an indissoluble union of one man and one woman. In response to the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015, O’Malley released a statement that he was “saddened” by the decision, both as a citizen of the United States and as a Catholic bishop. The institution of marriage is a fundamental building block in any society, the cardinal notes, and its protection is a shared responsibility of all people. “Certainly every citizen of this land, regardless of their sexual orientation, deserves to be respected in their personal and civic life,” O’Malley noted. “But enshrining same sex marriage in our constitutional system of governance has dangers that may become fully evident only over time.” A decade earlier, in response to developments in Massachusetts threatening to require adoption and foster agencies to place children with same-sex couples, O’Malley said that Catholic Charities in Boston would stop all adoption-related work rather than comply with such a law.

In a 2005 letter on homosexuality, Cardinal O’Malley explained that the Church’s defense of marriage “is not based on an animus against people with a homosexual orientation.”  He continued: “Each and every member of the Church is called to holiness regardless of their sexual orientation. The Church has often warned against defining people by their sexual orientation in a way that diminishes their humanity. Each person is a mystery, an irreplaceable treasure, precious in God’s eye. …We must strive to eradicate prejudices against people with a homosexual orientation. At the same time the Church must minister to all people by challenging them to obey God’s commands…If we tell people that sex outside of marriage is not a sin, we are deceiving people. If they believe this untruth, a life of virtue becomes all but impossible.”

Welcoming Fiducia Supplicans

While Cardinal O’Malley has defended Church teaching on the sinfulness of homosexual activity, when the Vatican released Fiducia Supplicans, allowing for the blessing of same-sex couples, Cardinal O’Malley adopted a posture of warmly welcoming the document. The cardinal said: “We thank the Holy Father for his love and care of all the people in the flock.” Cardinal O’Malley said that “the Holy Father has not endorsed gay marriage, but has recognized that all Catholics, including those whose unions are not recognized by the Church, as equally in need of God’s grace and love.” Cardinal O’Malley concluded by saying that Fiducia Supplicans “offers a type of blessing that can be conferred on anyone to invoke God’s help and mercy in their lives. It is the Church reaching out a hand of affection to all Catholics.” Ultimately, according to Cardinal O’Malley, Fiducia Supplicans provides “clarity” on how to impart blessings.

Unclear on Communion for “Remarried” Divorcees

O’Malley was asked in a 2014 interview with the National Catholic Register about proposals within the Church to modify Church teaching on the indissolubility of marriage to permit Catholics who are divorced and “remarried” to receive Holy Communion. O’Malley said in response, “The Church will not change her teaching on the indissolubility of marriage.” It is unclear whether he has offered a definitive statement about admitting divorced-and-“remarried” Catholics to Communion. He acknowledged that Pope Francis was anxious to discuss such issues and predicted that there would be “an effort to help those people who have had a failed marriage and try to sift through ways [to consider what] can be done.” The cardinal suggested that simplifying the annulment process “would be a wonderful first step for addressing a very crucial pastoral problem for the Church.”

Opposition to Cohabitation

In other remarks about the importance of marriage and the family as a building block of society, O’Malley has lamented that a “cohabitation mentality” is undermining a strong marital ethic in the United States. He also cites the increase in out-of-wedlock births, student debt (leading to delayed marriages), and poor marriage-preparation programs as other issues harming the marriage culture. Shortly after being elevated to the cardinalate, O’Malley elaborated on this theme. “People are postponing marriage or substituting it for cohabitation or they think that marriage is only about adults. So they get married without the idea of having children, or they justify, then, same-sex ‘marriage’ because it is an arrangement of friendship between adults rather than a family that is to generate life, to bring children into the world, to nurture them to prepare them to be good citizens of this world, and citizens of heaven.”

Priestly Celibacy

Regarding a proposal to relax the discipline of mandatory clerical celibacy in the Latin Rite, O’Malley said in 2006 that married clergy were “not an impossibility because we have Eastern rite clergy and we also have married deacons.” But he added: “In the mainline churches that have married clergy, they are having the same shortage of clergy in the same secularized countries.” So, he noted, married clergy is not the silver bullet to the problems that have appeared in recent years, and departing from the discipline of celibacy would “bring a whole set of other problems” including practical, not just theological, ones. O’Malley explained that celibacy is “not just seen for its practical value — and it does have a practical value, it makes people much more available to go wherever, to be able to serve God’s people — but it’s done more for the spiritual reasons behind it. In imitation of Jesus’s celibate life, [celibacy is] an invitation to renunciation, to follow Him.” Priestly celibacy is “a sign of the Church’s faith in the resurrection.”The cardinal sees significant practical and theological value in the charism of priestly celibacy and has been vocal in calling for serious consequences for violations of the priestly vow of celibacy.

At the 2019 Amazon synod, which discussed extensively the possibility of married clergy to deal with the priest shortage in the region, O’Malley said one reason for the shortage was the lack of resources for indigenous seminaries, adding that it was important to “make sacrifices” so people can “promote vocations and accompany and train seminarians in their own milieu and their own languages.” Pope Francis praised the cardinal for the remark, saying: “I thank Cardinal O’Malley for his courage in this because he put his finger on the sore in something that is a real social injustice, which is, in fact, the Indians are not allowed to go on the seminarian path and on the path of the priesthood.

Women Priests

The cardinal garnered attention when in a 2014 interview on the television program 60 Minutes he said that, were he starting a church, he would “love to have women priests.” While his remark was headline grabbing, he did not in the interview advocate a change of Church teaching on the priesthood. The interviewer asked O’Malley whether excluding women from the Church hierarchy was immoral, to which he responded: “Christ would never ask us to do something immoral. It’s a matter of vocation and what God has given to us.” After noting that the laity have important roles to play and that it is not just priests who are called to be holy, O’Malley then said: “The tradition in the Church is that we ordain men. If I were founding a church, I’d love to have women priests. But Christ founded it, and what he has given us is something different.” The cardinal has therefore not advocated a change in Church teaching and has defended the tradition of a male priesthood, though his views on the possibility of ordaining women to the diaconate are unclear. It is likely that he would not support changes in Church teaching on such topics, regardless of his personal preferences “were [he] founding a church.”

Migration Concerns

Cardinal O’Malley has been an influential spokesman for the Church on issues relating to immigration in America. O’Malley seems to treat a nation’s immigration policies as calling for a Good Samaritan, tying it to the principle of Catholic social teaching commonly called the “preferential option for the poor.” “By and large, our immigrants [in America] were very poor people and even the words of the Statue of Liberty remember that there was a preferential option for the poor and the unwanted from the beginning of our country.” He argues that Catholics in America should denounce divisive language in the immigration debate and be empathetic to the plight of immigrants. “We have to recall that we are an immigrant Church. The immigrants who have come to our country have made an incredible contribution to the life of the country, as well as the life of our Church,” he said. He sees the spirit of anti-immigration in America today as an “aberration” in America’s history, one that is neither American nor Catholic. “If we become an unwelcoming, closed country, we’re going to suffer the consequences of our selfishness.”

 In a 2017 letter to his diocese, O’Malley acknowledged that “many Americans are frustrated by a broken immigration system and others are fearful of the threat of terrorism,” but he believes “that most people in [America] recognize that we are a nation of immigrants and that we have an established history of assimilating people of different languages, religions, ethnicities into the magnificent mosaic that is America.” He continued: “The Catholic Church in the United States has always stood with people who have come to this country from other lands and found in the Church a community and spiritual home.” He assured his diocese that the American bishops were committed to working for comprehensive immigration reform and “for a welcoming policy towards those who are fleeing persecution and violence.”

O’Malley has strongly criticized certain immigration-related policies implemented by the Trump administration, such as limits on the numbers of refugees and immigrants permitted into the country from certain areas and policies entailing separation of children from parents. In June 2018, O’Malley deplored that “children are now being used as a deterrent against immigrants who are appealing to us for asylum in order to protect themselves and their families,” reflecting the “misguided moral logic of the policy.” The cardinal acknowledges that “developing sound immigration policy that respects the needs of a nation and those of the international community is a complex and challenging process,” one that involves reconciling domestic priorities with global demands.“Immigration policy is a moral question that cannot be separated from decisions of what is right and wrong, of justice and injustice. It is about respecting and reverencing the dignity of the human person.”

In the context of Trump administration policies limiting the number of immigrants to America from certain Muslim countries, O’Malley acknowledged that Americans “cannot afford to be sloppy about security” but at the same time “must guard against letting the darkness of hatred and prejudice poison [their] own hearts.” He noted that many Americans likely lack Muslim friends and might be unaware that “American Muslims are much less apt to be radicalized than their European counterparts.” American Muslims are “economically better off, better educated and much better integrated into the mainstream.” Fewer than 250 Americans have attempted to join the Islamic State, O’Malley added, of whom it is estimated only two dozen succeeded. Peace in the Middle East and at home — an end to terrorism — “can be achieved only if people of goodwill actively seek ways to strengthen community and overcome divisions and prejudices.”

Islam

O’Malley recognizes the prevalence of Islam in the world today as an important challenge facing the Church but is optimistic about points of commonality between Muslims and Christians. “There are historical reasons for tensions and rivalry [between Christians and Muslims,]” O’Malley noted in 2006, “and yet there are also points of convergence: the way [Muslims] look at life and issues like abortion, and marriage and things like this. There would be greater understanding among believers and people who practice the Muslim faith.”

Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue

In his statements and actions, Cardinal O’Malley has demonstrated enthusiasm toward ecumenism and interreligious dialogue.  For instance, in a 2014 blog post entitled “Celebrating Ecumenism,” Cardinal O’Malley displayed his positive stance toward ecumenism.  The cardinal described being invited to speak at an ecumenical service at a Methodist church, explaining: “The celebration was essentially a Bible service with hymns and Scripture readings, followed by a renewal of baptismal vows.” In his talk, Cardinal O’Malley read selections from the Second Vatican Council’s “Decree on Ecumenism.”

In another 2014 post, Cardinal O’Malley blogged about attending the Anti-Defamation League’s Nation of Immigrants Community Seder, which commemorated “the struggles of all those who have left their homelands in search of freedom and better life.” According to the Anti-Defamation League, Cardinal O’Malley talked about the importance of interfaith dialogue, “particularly as we work together for immigration reform.” In another talk, Cardinal O’Malley explained the importance of Nostra Aetate, the Second Vatican Council’s document on interfaith relations. Reflecting on the vision of a world where people live as brothers and sisters, the cardinal said: “It’s not a passing theory, it’s part of our belief system and part of our identity as Catholics.”

Mission

The cardinal emphasizes in his pastoral ministry the importance of the New Evangelization and the vocation of all members of the Church to witness to the gospel by their lives and words. We can pass on only what we have and receive, so Catholics must constantly undergo their own conversion and reconversion to love of Christ in order to share that love with others, O’Malley explains. As we each learn and come to live more fully our own faith, we are better able to “share that teaching with others and realize that having the faith is a responsibility and a mission.” In America especially, the Catholic Church, which has seen so many of its own drift away from the Faith over recent decades, must move “from a maintenance mode to a missionary one.” In a 2011 pastoral letter, the cardinal explained that Catholics today share in the same Great Commission that the first disciples received two thousand years ago. Catholics and non-Catholics alike are called to ongoing conversion. For Catholics, the call is to growth in the Faith. For those who have fallen away from the Church, the call is to reconciliation. For non-Catholic Christians, it is to know the fullness of the gospel message. And for those who do not have faith, the call is an invitation to know Jesus and to experience a change to new life in His Church. O’Malley prizes the work of evangelization and sees in it an urgent priority for the Church in modern times, noting that it “must be the first focus of our Church.”

Research has not indicated that O’Malley has articulated in-depth views on the proper mode of biblical interpretation and the historicity of the Gospels, nor of the role of Mary as a model for women in family life. It is unclear if he has spoken to the issue of universalism — the view that all will eventually be saved — but he did note in an interview that while he hopes everyone will be welcomed into heaven, he is not in a position to judge whether that state of affairs will, ultimately, obtain.

CLERGY SEXUAL ABUSE: CLEANING UP THE MESS

Seán O’Malley has emerged as a leader of the American Church’s response to the clergy sex abuse scandal. For much of his ministry he has served as the “Catholic Church’s public face of repentance and reform” in the wake of the crisis. The troubles snowballed in the early 2000s, when the Boston Globe’s Spotlight investigation revealed the shocking scope of clergy sex abuse and related cover-ups in the Boston area. Certainly the situation in Boston when O’Malley took over was dire. By nearly every account he has done an outstanding job cleaning up the mess.

O’Malley was chosen in July of 2003 by John Paul II to lead the Boston Archdiocese after serving only nine months as leader of the Palm Beach Diocese. He already had a proven track record “for cleaning up dioceses sullied by sex abuse scandals.” O’Malley’s second assignment as a bishop was to Fall River, Massachusetts, where he was tasked with cleaning up the fallout from clergy sex abuse. His time in Fall River gave him his first experience “settling lawsuits and translating tragedy into child-protection policies.” A few years later, O’Malley was moved to Palm Beach, Florida, to address a situation in which the two preceding bishops had both been accused of abusing children. O’Malley’s time there was short lived, as he was moved to Boston in 2003 to address the crisis there, having by this time earned a reputation as one of the few American bishops with experience handling these issues.

In Boston, O’Malley pushed “for meaningful accountability not just for the crime but the cover-up of sexual abuse for decades.” In August 2018, he published a statement in which he referred to activities in the seminary “which are directly contrary to the moral standards and requirements of formation for the Catholic priesthood.” After two months of study and reflection, the cardinal announced (in October 2018) an expanded review of St. John’s Seminary and two other seminaries by an outside firm. “Every time we thought we were rounding a corner,” O’Malley told the Atlantic in 2019, “there will be another explosion.” He was here referring to the shockwaves that went through the Catholic (and non-Catholic) world when in 2018 former cardinal Theodore McCarrick was exposed publicly as a serial abuser.

“The focus on the victims, the survivors, is the way out [of this problem] for the Church,” O’Malley told the Atlantic — to understand “the depth of the pain and the seriousness of our responsibility to address sexual abuse, and to do everything to eradicate it, and to establish the very safest environments for our own people.” O’Malley has even gone so far as to correct Pope Francis publicly for comments suggesting that Chilean survivors of abuse were guilty of “slander” in accusing a bishop of covering up the crimes of their abuser.

O’Malley believes that the Church in America has the right tools in place to solve the problem. He is a defender of the 2002 Dallas Charter, believing that it made a “huge difference” in the way the Church responds to sexual abuse. Before Pope Francis promulgated his plan for dealing with (among other issues) delinquent bishops (Vos Estis Lux Mundi), O’Malley had called for three specific actions to help address this problem. “First, a fair and rapid adjudication of these accusations; second, an assessment of the adequacy of our standards and policies in the Church at every level, and especially in the case of bishops; and third, communicating more clearly to the Catholic faithful and to all victims the process for reporting allegations against bishops and cardinals.”

After news broke about former cardinal McCarrick’s misconduct, many American bishops called for the Holy See to release all documents relating to the affair. The USCCB was split over a proposal that would have asked the Vatican to release the information. “That failed resolution, to me, was a mystery,” O’Malley said after the fact. “I think to express the urgency of doing it now, rather than later, would have been appropriate, and I’m sorry that they didn’t.” O’Malley himself was caught up in the McCarrick allegations insofar as Fr. Boniface Ramsey claimed to have sent O’Malley (via the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors) a letter in June 2015 detailing McCarrick’s predation.⁵“Cardinal O’Malley Launches Inquiry into Gay Misconduct at Seminary,” Church Militant, 10 August 2018 O’Malley claimed not to have received the letter personally, noting that the letter was handled by a staff member who reviewed it and sent Ramsey a reply explaining that the matter did not fall under the purview of the commission.

Ultimately, the Boston archdiocese indicated that Cardinal O’Malley would “personally review” all letters regarding abuse.

The cardinal, like many others, had called for a report from the Vatican detailing who knew what and when about McCarrick’s misconduct. O’Malley called for the establishment of “clear and transparent systems of accountability and consequence for Church leadership whose failures have allowed these crimes [of sexual abuse] to occur.” Though the crisis facing the Church is “a product of clerical sins and clerical failures,” it can only fruitfully be addressed by the “involvement and leadership of lay men and women in our Church, individuals who can bring their competence, experience and skills to the task we face.” Cardinal O’Malley has credited the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors with establishing “an irreversible path of cultural change in the Church’s handling of sexual abuse.”⁶O’Malley, “Bringing About a Culture of Prevention.”

• 1
  Quoting Benedict’s Homily on the Occasion of the XX World Youth Day, Cologne-Marienfeld, Sunday, 21 August 2005.
• 2
  Quoting John Paul II’s 2004 Encyclical on the Eucharist, Ecclesia de Eucharistia (cf. John 15:11).
• 3
  To illustrate the recent health of the program, thirteen men were ordained to the diaconate in September 2014, seven in 2017.
• 4
  O’Malley further explained that abortion is a “matter of public morality and the defense of human rights.”
• 5
  “Cardinal O’Malley Launches Inquiry into Gay Misconduct at Seminary,” Church Militant, 10 August 2018
• 6
  O’Malley, “Bringing About a Culture of Prevention.”