VIRGINIA
Crux
Christopher White December 2, 2016
CRUX CONTRIBUTOR
Bishop Paul Loverde of Arlington, Virginia, who retires next week, always kept his focus on the needy and the wounded — whether sex abuse victims, the hungry, migrants, or the victims of pornography.
When Paul Loverde’s tenure as Bishop of Arlington, Virginia comes to a close next week, perhaps his greatest legacy will be his reputation as a priest with an eye on the peripheries-long before we had a pope who popularized the concept.
Born an only child, and prematurely, to Sicilian immigrant parents, Loverde wasn’t expected to survive. But such a formative experience would instill in him a great respect for the value of life and an appreciation for the deep faith that sustained his family and proved formative to his youth. …
Soon after his arrival in Arlington, he set up a place of healing for victims of sexual abuse and future prevention. The fact that the diocese of Arlington had been spared much of the fallout from the sexual abuse crisis that plagued the American Church in the early 2000s didn’t stop Loverde from making his diocese a model of best practices and a place of assistance and support for those from all other dioceses.
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