Sunday, June 03, 2012

Maine Catholic Bishop Richard Malone appointed bishop of Buffalo

Most Rev. Richard Joseph MalonePope Benedict XVI has appointed the Most Rev. Richard J. Malone, bishop of Portland, as the new bishop of the Diocese of Buffalo, N.Y., the Maine diocese announced Tuesday. 

The appointment was announced at the Vatican at 6 a.m. EDT. The date of Malone’s installation will be Aug. 10 at St. Joseph Cathedral in downtown Buffalo.

The Diocese of Buffalo has more than 633,000 Catholics, more than three times that of Maine. 

In the city of Buffalo alone, there are 32 Catholic churches. The diocese has seven Catholic colleges and universities, and 15 Catholic high schools.

Malone, who had been an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Boston, was named in February 2004 by Pope John Paul II to replace Bishop Joseph J. Gerry. A Millinocket native, Gerry submitted his retirement letter to the pope, as required, on his 75th birthday in September 2003. He retired to St. Anselm Abbey in Manchester, N.H., and the life of a Benedictine monk after serving as bishop for 15 years. 

Malone was installed as the 11th bishop of the diocese, which makes up the entire state, on March 31, 2004, at a Mass in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland.

At his installation eight years ago, Malone outlined some of the challenges the Maine diocese faced, including:
• Reconfiguring parishes so evangelization could be effective.
• Focusing on nurturing people interested in the priesthood and religious life.
• Identifying, supporting and collaborating with lay leaders.
• Advancing Catholic teaching on matters of social justice, peace and respect for human life.
• Making education a priority by supporting Catholic schools, lifelong faith formation, adult religious education and youth and young adult ministry.

At that time, there were 234,000 Roman Catholics in the diocese. As Malone leaves the state, there are 187,306 adherents, according to information posted on the diocesan website. 

While Maine has the lowest percentage of people in the country who claim a religious affiliation, the Catholic Church has the most members of any denomination in Maine.

The 11th bishop of Maine most likely will be remembered by Catholics for his New Evangelization plan, which consolidated 137 parishes into 57, and his support of the people’s veto of a law that would have allowed same-sex couples to marry in Maine.

The New Evangelization plan, announced in the year after Malone’s installation, called for a paradigm shift in the way ordained and lay Catholics view their roles in the church, William R. Schulz, the man charged with seeing it implemented, said at a planning meeting in October 2007 in Bangor. 

The plan abolished traditional parish lines. In Greater Bangor, two parishes were created. 

One includes churches that previously functioned independently in Bangor, Brewer, Hampden and Winterport. Another is made up of worship sites in Old Town, Orono, Indian Island and Bradley.

One of the driving forces behind the reorganization was the number of priests expected to retire by 2010. When the plan was announced in 2005, there were 90 active diocesan priests. Five years later, it was estimated there would be between 60 and 65. 

According to information posted on the diocesan website, there are 69 active diocesan priests in Maine and 86 who are retired or ill. 

There are 32 priests ordained by religious orders and 10 priests from other dioceses, including some outside the U.S., serving the state’s Catholics.

Several priests now are assigned to most parishes, with one serving as pastor. In most instances, they live communally in one rectory.

Under Malone’s guidance, parishes are now made up of a group of churches in geographic regions with between two and 10 worship sites in each parish. Parishes are overseen by one board made up of members from each church.

The consolidation and the shortage of priests has led to fewer Masses available each weekend and the closing of about 10 churches around the state, including St. Mary Catholic Church on Main Street in Orono.

Malone announced in March that he and the diocese would sit on the sidelines during the upcoming same-sex marriage referendum campaign. More than two years ago, Maine voters rejected gay marriage in a statewide vote, 53 percent to 47 percent, after it had been passed by the Legislature and signed by then-Gov. John Baldacci. 

During the 2009 successful referendum to repeal same-sex marriage, the church gave $500,000 and lent its public policy director full time to the campaign.

The bishop said earlier this year the diocese would instead focus on teaching parishioners about the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman. 

At a press conference earlier this year, Malone unveiled a pastoral letter titled “Marriage: yesterday… today… always.” Malone said he wrote the letter to explain the church’s position on marriage. The document will be discussed at Catholic churches and schools and through the diocesan magazine and radio station, which both were launched under Malone’s direction.

Attracting young men willing to commit a lifetime to the priesthood has proven more difficult. Two men, both in their 60s, are to become diocesan priests this summer. 

In 2005, there were 11 men in seminaries studying to become priests, according to a previously published report. This year, there are eight, according to information on the diocesan website.

What Malone leaves undone, he said in an interview earlier this year, is the full implementation of the spiritual component of the New Evangelization.

“Evangelization as we think of it now is a large umbrella that really means — and it means it here in Maine — finding every creative way we possibly can to bring the good news of Jesus Christ and the good news of the Gospel to people,” Malone said when he had been bishop for six months.

The falling number of Catholics in Maine and the increase in the secular nature of the New England states over the last 50 years has added to the challenge, he has said.

“The response to this unfortunate reality is what the church calls the New Evangelization, that is, finding every possible creative way to reach out to others by word and example about the good news of Jesus Christ,” Malone said earlier this month in response to a survey that showed few Mainers claim a denominational affiliation. “In our diocese there are many initiatives, particularly with teens and young adults, designed to help them embrace our faith.”

Malone was born in Salem, Mass., and graduated from St. John’s Preparatory School in Danvers. He studied at Cardinal O’Connell Seminary in Jamaica Plain and graduated from St. John Seminary, Boston, with bachelor’s degrees in philosophy and divinity and a master’s degree in theology. 

Malone subsequently earned a doctorate in theology at Boston University and a Licentiate in Sacred Theology at Weston Jesuit School of Theology.

Malone was ordained a priest in 1972 and was assigned to St. Patrick parish, Stoneham, Mass., as associate pastor. He served on the faculty of St. Clement High School, Somerville, Mass.; Xaverian High School, Westwood, Mass.; and his alma mater, St. John Seminary. 

Concurrent with his time at St. John Seminary, he was part-time chaplain at Wellesley and Regis Colleges and taught at Emmanuel College in Boston. 

Later he was assigned as chaplain to the Harvard-Radcliffe Catholic Student Center. 

In 1993, he accepted the position of director of the Office of Religious Education for the Archdiocese of Boston and subsequently was named Secretary for Education.

Malone currently chairs the Evangelization and Catechesis Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. He serves on other USCCB committees as well as sitting on the boards of two seminaries. 

Malone was elected to the Board of Catholic Relief Services in 2010 and serves on the U.S. Operations Committee.