Chris Churchill interviewed Bishop Mark last Thursday. His story (below)

 

Bishop Mark O’Connell has been on the job for about three months. His message to parishioners: More pain is coming, but so, he believes, is rebirth. 

 

Most Catholics in the area will already know about the pain. They know that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany has filed for bankruptcy protection following lawsuits filed by survivors of sexual abuse by priests. They know the shock of terrible revelations, and that the financial costs have yet to come due. 

 

But O’Connell said the path back to normalcy, if there is such a thing, will be a difficult walk. The hurt, he said, will ripple into every corner of the diocese. 

“We didn’t go into bankruptcy because it was arbitrary. We went into bankruptcy because there’s sinfulness that needs to be repaired in some way,” O’Connell said Wednesday morning during a 45-minute conversation. “We have a collective sin, and that collective sin affects us all.”

The notion that there’s something collective about what happened may rankle some Catholics, I imagine. Rank-and-file parishioners did nothing wrong, after all, and many would say they were let down by church leadership. In some smaller sense, parishioners are also victims. 

 

Individual parishes within the diocese are separately incorporated with funds of their own. But those parishes also have resources that are shared with those of the greater diocese, O’Connell said, and how that money is handled is for the bankruptcy judge to decide.

And what about the St. Clare’s parishioners?

A jury recently awarded $54.2 million in damages to former employees of the shuttered hospital whose retirements were thrown upside down by the failed pension fund. 

Jurors found that the late Howard Hubbard and Edward Scharfenberger, both former diocese bishops, were among the defendants liable for failing to administer the hospital’s pension plan properly. The jury also decided that the diocese itself did not owe a fiduciary duty to the pensioners and that it is not liable for the 2018 collapse. 

The bishop told me, after I asked, that he has spoken to the pensioners' “leadership” and has offered to speak to the larger group, which includes roughly 1,000 former workers. They are Catholics who are hurting, he said. “I care very deeply about them and will do my best for them.”

O’Connell, 61, was installed in early December and has spent much of the three months since visiting churches across the sprawling, 14-county diocese. (I assured him that summer is more than a theoretical concept.)

The experience has been joyful, O’Connell said, though he conceded he’s still getting used to being the center of attention. The responsibility, he added, can feel daunting, although the bankruptcy process, in many respects, will be similar to what he experienced in the Archdiocese of Boston after its well-documented sexual-abuse scandals.

“I’m here to get this done, and I’m here to walk with the people to rebuild,” O’Connell said. “This generation is going to rebuild the church, and I’m going to be there with them and help them do that. I would be without hope if I thought money was the key to the church. It isn’t. The spirit is the key to the rebuilding of the church, and I have seen the spirit of the people here, so I have great hope. But also, a bit of fear.”

In one respect, the green shoots of rebirth are already apparent. Like Catholic communities around the country, the Albany diocese in recent years has experienced a sharp increase in the number of people participating in adult baptisms and confirmations. Particularly among the young, there seems to be a hunger for the meaning and purpose that faith can provide. (I went through the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults process starting in 2023.)

O’Connell attributed the surge to both the COVID-19 pandemic and the nation’s divisive politics. When the world feels unstable, he said, the church and its solidity offer a welcome contrast. 

On the topic of politics, O’Connell has made it clear that he has little interest in being stuffed into a box labeled liberal or conservative.

But that shouldn’t be interpreted to mean that he’s wishy-washy or afraid to speak out. As Catholic bishops around the country increasingly speak out against “dehumanizing” Trump administration deportation policies, O’Connell noted that he is ready to do the same if “outrageousness” comes to his diocese. 

“The church is never going to stop speaking up for the rights of poor people, immigrants and the unborn,” he said, noting that “even in that sentence, you can see that I’m on both sides of the aisle.”

Toward the end of our conversation, I asked O’Connell if he’s homesick for Boston. He’s been too busy to think much about it, he replied, but, of course, he’s missing friends. The Super Bowl, as it happens, made relocating a little easier.  

“I would love to be there if the Patriots had won,” O’Connell said. “But the Patriots didn’t win, so I’m happy to be away.”

 

Kathy Barrans | Director of Communications