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Church seeks to move cardinal’s remains

E-mail|Link|Comments () Posted by Michael Paulson September 18, 2009 08:15 AM

In this morning's Globe, I have a story about the Catholic Church's efforts to relocate the remains of Cardinal William H. O'Connell, who was buried under a small chapel behind his house in Brighton in 1944. Trouble is, the land has since been sold to Boston College, the cardinal's alma mater, and the university has said it doesn't think the campus is the appropriate place for the cardinal's remains. So yesterday, the archbishop of Boston (Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley) and the Boston College board of trustees jointly filed a petition with the Suffolk Probate and Family Court asking for permission to relocate the burial site to the campus of St. Sebastian's School in Needham.

My lede:

The Archdiocese of Boston, writing an epilogue to one of the more colorful stories in the history of Catholic Boston, asked a court yesterday for permission to unearth the entombed body of Cardinal William H. O’Connell and relocate his remains to the grounds of a suburban prep school.
The proposed disinterment is rich with historical irony, because when O’Connell first purchased land in Brighton as a headquarters for the archdiocese, he insisted that the remains of a group of Sulpician priests be dug up and removed from the property.

Now, six decades after his death, the cardinal’s body may be exhumed from the same acreage because his own alma mater, Boston College, has insisted that the archdiocese remove the cardinal’s remains as a condition of the university’s purchase of the Brighton property.

“It is no longer possible to honor the late cardinal’s wishes relative to his burial,’’ Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley and the trustees of Boston College said in a joint filing in Suffolk Probate and Family Court yesterday. “The petitioning parties seek this court’s approval to reinter the cardinal’s remains on a site approved by the court.’’

The good folks at Boston.com have scanned and posted Cardinal O'Connell's last will and testament (a fascinating read) as well as the complaint for relocation of Cardinal O'Connell's burial site for your perusal.

O%27Connell_tomb.JPG

(Photo above, by the Globe, shows the chapel where Cardinal O'Connell was buried in a crypt beneath the floorboards. The photograph was taken on April 28, 1944, just before the cardinal's burial later that same day.)

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8 comments so far...

Why doesn't the Archdiocese move Cardinal O'Connell to the Cathedral? That is where Bishops were buried until the Cardinal's residence was built, and now the residence has moved back to the Cathedral.

It doesn't make sense to move him to a school that is borrowing space or that will move and renovate with the years (as schools must).

Posted by gaud September 18, 09 01:07 PM

That map looks a little wrong...speaking as someone who lived on the property for 6 years...it is not right.

Posted by Fr. Chip Hines September 18, 09 01:16 PM

Um... big error of the map. The former Cardinal's residence is labelled "St John's Seminary"

Posted by gaude September 18, 09 03:52 PM

I love this story, but am curious why BC isn't catching for flack for exhuming a Cardinal so they can add a parking garage or an extra practice field for the football team or whatever revenue-generating crap they want to put in there.

Seems to me that having a small chapel that some would consider a reliquary and shrine would be a nice touch on a campus that's supposed to be Catholic. But hey, $$$ talks at BC.

Posted by Brendan September 18, 09 04:15 PM

I hope the chaplain, teachers and students of St. Sebastian's take seriously the obligation of praying for Cardinal O'Connell's soul. We need to pray for our clergy, even after they're gone.

Posted by Chris September 20, 09 08:31 AM

Favorite make-out spot on campus. Go by and see the ....trash... that surrounds it. The Cardinal needs to be moved.

Posted by q September 20, 09 08:53 AM

The cardinal needs to moved. The tomb has not been maintained in any serious way and it is disgraceful that a bishop..a cardinal prince of the church at that, should have his tomb/chapel left in such a state of disrepair. While Cardinal O'Connell is today, in light of his history and tenure as archbishop of Boston, is, in many circles, vilified, his tomb should not be left in its current state.
However, while the Cathedral does not have a crypt I urge that he be re-buried in the Catholic cemetery where there is perpetual care and no likelihood of his being moved again.
I agree that the boys' school is not the place in the event the school some day closes or is moved...then the movement of the cardinal becomes an issue again. But then Cardinal O'connell did like to travel.

Posted by Michael Checkley September 26, 09 08:53 AM

um... the Cathedral has a crypt where Ab Williams and Bp Fitzpatrick are buried, and it is also a chapel with the original altar from the first Cathedral (Bullfinch church) which was in the Financial District. Requiems Masses are celebrated there on their anniversaries.

Posted by J October 28, 09 10:27 PM

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Michael Paulson covers religion for The Boston Globe. He shared in the Pulitzer Prize in 2003, won the Mike Berger, Templeton and Supple awards in 2008, and is a four-time winner of the Wilbur Award.
E-mail mpaulson@globe.com.

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Harvey Cox, the Hollis professor of divinity at Harvard University, marks his retirement by asserting a little-used right of his professorship -- to graze a cow in Harvard Yard. Photo, by Barry Chin of the Globe staff, taken on Sept. 10, 2009 in Cambridge, Mass.