O'Malley to report to Vatican this week

Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley will discuss the Archdiocese of Boston's massive consolidation and its handling of the clergy abuse crisis during a 10-day "Ad Limina" stay at the Vatican, part of a formal progress report that every Roman Catholic diocese in the world makes every five years.

O'Malley, who is scheduled to depart Wednesday, will meet with Pope John Paul II, if the pontiff's health permits, O'Malley's spokesman, the Rev. Christopher J. Coyne, said.

"Archbishop O'Malley wants to speak to the pope and other officials of the Holy See about the clergy abuse crisis, what we've done to address the issue, and what we hope and need to continue to do," Coyne said. "The archbishop wants to share with Rome many of the issues concerning the pastoral and ecclesiastical health of the archdiocese connected with the reconfiguration."

Of the archdiocese's 357 parishes, 82 have been slated to close.

O'Malley will also seek a clear explanation on the washing of feet, an issue that has embroiled him in controversy after he washed only the feet of men, and not women, on Holy Thursday in April. O'Malley later apologized for offending women, and said he was following Vatican guidelines. Cardinal Bernard F. Law washed women's feet, as do many priests in the archdiocese and most American clergy.

"The archbishop will ask for an extension of the directive on footwashing, to allow both men and women to be washed," Coyne said.

O'Malley will be making his second trip to the Vatican this summer. At St. Peter's Basilica, on June 29 -- the feast day of Saints Peter and Paul -- the pope granted O'Malley the pallium, the simple woolen band that symbolizes the unity of the pontiff and metropolitan archbishops such as O'Malley.

O'Malley will go to Rome with all of New England's bishops, including Fall River Bishop George W. Coleman, who announced in a letter distributed at weekend Masses that the diocese has been studying its parishes in preparation for its own reconfiguration.

Coleman cited in the letter a shift of population from cities to suburbs and declines in priests and attendance that "warrant serious attention and consideration by each of us who make up the Church and have a responsibility to care for its future," according to a statement about the reconfiguration plan posted on the diocesan website.

The diocese projects a decline in active priests from about 120 now to less than 60 in 2021. The Fall River Diocese has 96 parishes and 28 schools for a population of about 346,000 Catholics.

This fall, priests and lay Catholics will gather at assemblies in the diocese's five regions: Attleboro, Cape Cod and the Islands, Fall River, New Bedford, and Taunton. Officials from the diocese's pastoral planning office will discuss the results of a demographic and statistical survey of the diocese, the region, and its parishes.

The pastor and a lay parishioner from each parish will form a regional committee that will consult with the diocese over the winter and spring.

"This task will be carried out by a careful, deliberative process that incorporates and involves participation from laity and clergy alike, since we all share the responsibility to address the needs of the church," Coleman wrote.