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Cardinal O’Malley celebrates Mass in the Archdiocese of Boston’s Bethany Chapel Watch the Rome Reports video profile.Recently I attended a funeral at which Seán Cardinal O’Malley, Archbishop of Boston, was the main celebrant. He had flown down to Washington to honour the memory of an old friend with whom he had worked for many years on charitable projects, long before he became a bishop. In listening to the cardinal, I was struck not only by his personal humility, but also by the fact that the Mass was celebrated in a mixture of English, Spanish, and Latin. His willingness to...

BOSTON, March 6, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Boston's Cardinal Archbishop, Sean O'Malley has compared Canada's eroding legal protections for religious freedom with the case of a Lexington Massachusetts father who was denied by a school his right to opt his son out of state-prescribed sex-education classes.   Cardinal O'Malley compares the Massachusetts case to the situation in Canada. He wrote, "In Canada . . . They are already seeing the many different ways that people's religious rights are being trampled because of the redefinition of marriage."   In 2005, David Parker of Lexington filed suit when his son's school notified him...

BOSTON - Boston Archbishop Sean O'Malley declined to wash the feet of women during a Holy Week ritual that symbolizes Jesus' washing the feet of his disciples. O'Malley, heeding instructions from the Vatican on the subject, washed the feet of 12 men - representing Jesus' 12 male disciples - as he celebrated Holy Thursday Mass. The practice of including women in the foot-washing ritual is controversial among some clergy. Traditionalists oppose inclusion of women in the ritual, but others see it as an outdated rule that can alienate women from the church. In Atlanta, about 100 men and women gathered...

BOSTON (AP) - Boston Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley offered an apology to women for including feminism in a list of societal ills, and for his decision not to include women in a foot-washing ceremony. O'Malley, in a letter published in Friday's edition of The Pilot, the archdiocesan newspaper, praised what he termed "Christian feminism," and affirmed his support for the contributions of women in the church. He also pledged to seek guidance on whether he should wash women's feet when he visits the Vatican in August. "I am sorry if this controversy has been upsetting to our Catholic women, and...

BOSTON, November 28, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Boston Archbishop Sean O'Malley wrote a pastoral letter last week calling on Catholics to show true love to persons with homosexual tendencies. This is done he said by telling them that homosexual acts are sinful, he said. Otherwise, the bishop continued, we are dangerously "deceiving people." After clarifying that the Catholic Church does not tolerate unjust discrimination towards persons with homosexual tendencies, the leader of the Catholic Church in Boston reminded Catholics that although Jesus did not condemn the woman caught in adultery, he did however - after saving her life - tell her...

Disagreement over Mayor Thomas Menino's views on abortion and same-sex marriage has prompted Archbishop Sean O'Malley to cancel plans to attend the annual Catholic Charities Christmas dinner next month. Also, O'Malley is sending a letter to every parish in the archdiocese in which he says the church's opposition to gay marriage should not be interpreted as hostility toward homosexuals, and Catholics should strive to end discrimination toward gays and lesbians. The Catholic Charities fundraising dinner is honoring Menino, an outspoken advocate of abortion rights and gay marriage. The Catholic Action League of Massachusetts, a conservative Catholic group, has called for...

Just one day after his installation, the new archbishop of Boston has already started making changes. Newscenter 5's Steve Sbraccia reported that on Thursday, Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley named Boston attorney Thomas Hannigan as lead counsel for the archdiocese. Hannigan will handle the more than 500 sex abuse lawsuits brought by those who claim priests sexually abused them. Hannigan's work is no stranger to O'Malley, who helped him settle cases involving the Rev. James Porter a decade ago, when O'Malley was head of the Fall River Diocese. In a statement released on Thursday, O'Malley praised Hannigan. "It is my hope...