BOSTON (MA)
CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS/AP) — Cardinal Sean O’Malley was “terrified” when the Vatican sent him to run the scandal-plagued Archdiocese of Boston in 2003, he said in a “60 Minutes” segment that aired Sunday evening.
In the wide-ranging interview with Norah O’Donnell, O’Malley talked about his new role as the president of a Vatican commission to combat child abuse, his views on the role of women in the church and his close relationship with Pope Francis.
When O’Malley was sent to Boston, the church was facing its biggest sex abuse scandal in history.
“There were a thousand lawsuits against us. The seminary was empty,” O’Malley said. “As I say such anger, disappointment, upset on the part of the people.”
O’Malley had earned a reputation for cleaning up churches besieged by scandal in Fall River and Palm Beach, Florida, but the Boston assignment was especially daunting.
“It was – somebody described it as a fixer-upper,” O’Malley said.
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