Weigel praises Bishop Olmsted's fidelity
January 06, 2011
George Weigel praises Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix for cutting ties with a hospital that would not conform to Catholic ethical standards. With that case, he observes, “an important marker has been laid down by a bishop known for both his integrity and his personal sanctity.”
In a column that also praises Cardinal Francis George for his performance as president of the US bishops’ conference—and looks forward to similarly strong leadership from the new president, Archbishop Timothy Dolan—Weigel speaks bluntly about the challenges Bishop Olmsted has faced:
Bishop Olmsted inherited a terrible situation in Phoenix: The previous bishop had been disgraced; the local legal authorities had stated publicly that they could not trust the Church to police its own house in matters of sexual abuse, and proposed to take over that function themselves. Bishop Olmsted didn’t squawk, nor did he deny that serious problems existed. Rather, he quietly and decisively set about fixing what needed fixing, so that the public authorities were soon content to revert to a more normal Church/state relationship.
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