O'Malley meets with pontiff in Rome

Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley is in Rome to talk with Pope Benedict XVI and top officials of the Catholic Church about replacing elderly auxiliary bishops of the Archdiocese of Boston and to consult on other, unspecified issues, according to a spokesman.

Terrence C. Donilon, director of communications for the archdiocese, said O'Malley had an audience with the pope on Wednesday and would return to Boston over the weekend. He refused to disclose which issues, other than the matter of auxiliary bishops, are on O'Malley's Vatican agenda.

Auxiliary bishops are appointed by the pope and assist diocesan bishops like O'Malley in a variety of pastoral and administrative tasks. One of the six auxiliary bishops' posts in the Boston archdiocese is currently vacant, and several auxiliary bishops are either near retirement or are ailing. Three are over 70.

All bishops are required to offer to retire when they turn 75.

Five of the six are assigned to geographic regions. The sixth position, currently held by Bishop Richard G. Lennon, is vicar general of the archdiocese. Lennon took over day-to-day administration on a temporary basis when Cardinal Law resigned in 2002 in the face of evidence that he failed to remove from office priests who had sexually abused parishioners.

''O'Malley holds these guys in high regard," said an archdiocesan official, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation. ''But he has a completely different management style than [former Cardinal Bernard] Law did. He needs younger people to whom he can delegate more."

Most auxiliary bishops who served during Law's tenure were not involved in the day-to-day administration of the archdiocese, the official said.

John L. Allen Jr., Vatican correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter, said O'Malley's visit was not likely to be connected to the widespread expectation in the United States that O'Malley -- like every archbishop of Boston for the last century -- eventually will be made a cardinal.

Allen said the United States, with 13 cardinals, already is overrepresented in the College of Cardinals compared with countries with much larger Catholic populations. Brazil, with the world's largest Catholic population, has six.

He also said that San Francisco Archbishop William J. Levada, who succeeded the current pope as head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, is in line ahead of O'Malley to be made a cardinal and also noted that O'Malley's Capuchin values, such as humility and aversion to honors, may mean that O'Malley does not want to be a cardinal.

Charles A. Radin can be reached at radin@globe.com.