Boston, Mass., Oct 24, 2005 / 22:00 pm
Archbishop Sean O'Malley is seeking to revive the struggling Catholic school system in Boston and has chosen one of the archdiocese’s most prominent critics to do it.
Businessman Jack Connors Jr., a philanthropist and active Catholic, harshly and publicly criticized church leadership about the sexual abuse crisis. Over the last three years, he repeatedly offered to assist the archdiocese in emerging from crisis that has followed the scandal.
"Everybody is a Catholic who wants to be on board and wants to help the church," the archbishop told the Globe. ''There is no blacklist here.”
Archbishop O'Malley asked Connors to head a task force that will come up with a plan by next spring for improving, governing, and financing the school system. The plan will probably close some schools in urban areas and open new schools in suburban areas, where there are few Catholic schools for the number of people who moved out to the area.