On Aug. 5, Pope Francis accepted the retirement of Boston Cardinal Seán O’Malley, OFM Cap., and replaced him with Archbishop-elect Richard Henning, formerly the Bishop of Providence.
It was a fitting day. Aug. 5 is the Memorial of the Dedication of St. Mary Major Basilica, Cardinal Seán’s favorite of the four patriarchal basilicas in Rome and in many ways the center of Rome’s Marian devotion across the centuries and still today. His episcopal motto, “Quodcumque dixerit facite,” was Mary’s valedictory in Sacred Scripture, given to the servants in Cana: “Do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2:5). On Aug. 5, through Pope Francis, Christ’s earthly vicar, Cardinal Seán, though a quite vigorous octogenarian, was told it was time to let a younger man fill the jars to the brim. And he characteristically did what he was told, with serenity and a smile.
I had the joy to be ordained a priest by him in Fall River’s cathedral 25 years ago and have been privileged to work closely by and with him as a seminarian and young priest.
A triple valedictorian — high school, college and graduate school — fluent in 10 languages, he marked his 80th birthday on June 29 and his 40th anniversary of episcopal ordination on Aug. 2. Half of his life, and 40 of his 54 years as a priest, he has spent wearing a bishop’s pectoral cross.
That pectoral cross has been prophetic. See rest of story Here