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American Cardinal Sean O’Malley, known for his support for sex abuse survivors and his push for reforms in the Catholic Church, has resigned as archbishop of Boston, the Vatican announced Monday.
The Vatican said in a statement that the octogenarian will be replaced by Providence Bishop Richard Henning, 59, to lead the fourth-largest diocese in the United States.
The announcement said Pope Francis had accepted Mr. O’Malley’s resignation, but did not give a reason for his departure.
In the Catholic Church, bishops who lead a diocese usually retire at age 75, but the pope can ask them to continue in office longer.
Currently, Bishop O’Malley remains the head of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, a body created by Pope Francis to combat pedophilia among priests. The bishop has led the commission since 2014.
Bishop O’Malley’s resignation ends two decades of Catholic leadership in Boston, a city with predominantly Italian and Irish communities, where the global clergy child sex abuse scandal broke in 2002, a year before his ordination.
Bishop O’Malley, an ally of Pope Francis and a member of the Franciscan Capuchin Minor order, built ties with the Hispanic immigrant community in the Washington Diocese during his early years as a priest.
Prior to arriving in Boston, Bishop O’Malley served as Bishop of the Diocese of St. Thomas, which covers the entire U.S. Virgin Islands, and later as Bishop of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston.
In the Dioceses of Fall River and Palm Beach, Florida, he dealt with the fallout from scandals involving sexual abuse of minors by priests.
However, he rose to prominence in Boston, handling what was then the largest clergy sex abuse scandal in the United States, which was later depicted in the Oscar-winning film Spotlight.
The archdiocese, known for its cordial relations with victims and its speed in resolving cases, agreed under Bishop O’Malley’s watch to pay $85 million to settle about 550 lawsuits from victims.
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