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  Bishop Turns 75, Turns in Resignation

By Kathryn Marchocki
New Hampshire Union Leader
August 12 2010

http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Bishop+turns+75%2C+turns+in+resignation&articleId=2b8ea01e-9165-4906-9c5e-42f184616079

MANCHESTER – Bishop John B. McCormack's resignation as leader of the Catholic Diocese of Manchester sets in motion the highly secretive, often long process by which the Pope and top church officials search for a successor.

Bishop John B. Mccormack

McCormack mailed his letter of resignation to Pope Benedict XVI prior to turning 75 today, diocesan spokesman Kevin J. Donovan said yesterday.

Church law requires bishops, archbishops and cardinals to tender their resignation to the Pope by their 75th birthday. It is up to the Pope to accept their resignations and to appoint a successor.

McCormack is vacationing in another New England state with family and friends this week and was not available for comment, Donovan said. He is due back Monday.

Cardinal Bernard F. Law, then archbishop of Boston, installed McCormack as the ninth bishop of Manchester on Sept. 22, 1998.

The Winthrop, Mass., native previously was an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Boston and also served as one of Law's top aides, charged with handling priests accused of sexually preying on children and clerical misconduct.

The process for selecting a bishop is cloaked in secrecy and can take at least six to eight months, according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The apostolic nuncio, who is the Pope's representative to the church in the United States and serves as the Vatican's ambassador to the U.S., plays a key role in the selection of a bishop.

McCormack has not prepared a report detailing the conditions and needs of the diocese because the apostolic nuncio has not requested one at this time, Donovan said.

Several church experts would not speculate on a possible successor, but have said it is likely the next bishop will come from outside the diocese.

Only two of the nine bishops appointed to head the Manchester diocese in its 125-year history were New Hampshire natives.

The diocese encompasses the entire state and has an estimated 310,000 Catholics.

This is the first time in the diocese's history that a bishop submitted his retirement letter when he turned 75, Donovan said.

Six bishops died in office. The late Bishop Ernest J. Primeau became the first to retire from office in 1974 at 64. Bishop Odore J. Gendron retired in 1990 at 69.

"We are all going to be learning together because this is the first time in recent memory that a bishop has submitted his retirement letter," Donovan said. "It's very exciting for us."

Already six American bishops, archbishops and cardinals have submitted their resignations when they turned 75, but the Pope has yet to accept them, said Don Clemmer, a spokesman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington. McCormack is the seventh. In addition, there are three dioceses and one Eastern Catholic eparchy that are vacant because they do not have a bishop, he said.

"Since the beginning of 2010, the U.S. church has seen over a dozen bishop appointments, including two new ordinaries in Texas alone, two in Pennsylvania, a new archbishop of Miami, coadjutors in Trenton and Los Angeles, and a handful of auxiliaries. You could make the argument that this has been an eventful year," Clemmer said.

 
 

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