BISHOP MARK O’CONNELL is departing St. Theresa Parish as its pastor of more than six years to become the Vicar General/Moderator of the Curia for the Archdiocese of Boston as of January 1. (Courtesy Photo)

By MAUREEN DOHERTY

NORTH READING — With the arrival of the new year a major transition will occur at St. Theresa Parish as Bishop Mark O’Connell has received a promotion and will be leaving his post as church pastor.

After 6 1/2 years serving as both Pastor of St. Theresa and Bishop of the North Region, where he oversaw 50 parishes, Bishop Mark has been called to serve as the Vicar General/Moderator of the Curia for the Archdiocese of Boston. This is a fancy way of saying that he will serve as second in command to Cardinal Seán O’Malley, the Archbishop of Boston.

In his new post as Vicar General, Bishop Mark will be acting in Cardinal Seán’s name for the entire Archdiocese, running the day-to-day operations of the Archdiocese “in his name and under his authority,” he said.

This is a significant position as Cardinal Seán is “a world-wide figure,” he added, explaining that O’Malley is one of only 123 active Cardinals in the Roman Catholic Church throughout the world, 11 of whom are active in the United States.

In explaining his new position to his parishioners through his weekly letter in the church bulletin, Bishop Mark wrote: “There are three types of authority in the Church: ordinary, vicarious, and delegated. ‘Ordinary’ means the person is responsible for a particular group of Catholics. The Pope has ordinary authority over the Universal Church, Cardinal Seán as Archbishop of Boston, has ordinary authority over the Archdiocese of Boston. I, as pastor of St. Theresa Parish, have ordinary authority over St. Theresa Parish.”

‘“Delegated’ authority means that someone is delegated for a particular responsibility. For example, I am delegated to give out dispensations. ‘Vicarious’ authority means the person acts for the ordinary with the same authority, as long as the vicar does not contradict the ordinary. There are different types of vicars. Fr. Anda, for example, is a ‘Parochial Vicar’ and therefore has vicarious authority here at St. Theresa Parish. I currently have vicarious authority in the North Region as an ‘Episcopal Vicar’ and my successor here will be an Episcopal Vicar,” he stated.

Complementing his responsibilities as Vicar General, Bishop Mark will be given an additional title of “Moderator of the Curia.”

He further explains, “The ‘Curia’ are those that work for the Archdiocese…As Moderator of the Curia, I lead those who work in the Pastoral Center in Braintree, which includes all the pastoral offices, financial offices, and school offices.” In this role, he will sit on 30 boards and committees and quips: “Wish me luck!”

“I’ve been in this line of work for a long time. I was ordained in 1990 and in 1997 I was sent to Rome to study Canon law, and I came back in 2001 to work as the assistant to what I will be, so I have been working for central administration since 2001. Then, in 2016, I was made a Bishop and am in charge of the North Region  and I was made pastor of St. Theresa’s. And now I leave St. Theresa as a Vicar General.”

Accomplished much together

“It is exciting and tough to leave such a beautiful parish as St. Theresa. It’s unbelievable what we have accomplished in 6 1/2 years, and two of those were Covid,” Bishop Mark added.

Working with his parishioners, no fewer than 25 infrastructure projects were completed to modernize the circa 1960 church to serve the parish well into the 21st century.

“We’ve made our church far more handicap accessible. We’ve done three things – added automatic doors in the church and the hall, adding a place for the wheelchairs, and improving the bathroom,” he said.

Additional upgrades included: adding new entrance and exit signage on Rte. 62; upgrading the sound system in the church and the hall; installing live-streaming; wiring all classrooms for audio/visual capability; purchasing new tables, chairs and a stage curtain for the hall; updating the hall kitchen, installing candle stands in the church; renovating the confessional; making the ‘crying room’ more child-friendly; installing a new heating system and air-conditioning in the church; adding a handicap-accessible section in the church by removing a pew and adding seat padding; painting the inside of the church; renovating the prayer room in the Chapel of the Holy Family; renovating the pastoral office; and refurbishing the statue of St. Theresa. Currently, they are remodeling the sacristy and awaiting the installation of new parking lot lights.

“We’ve done a lot of charitable work. People are incredible generous. I think that is something to be very proud of. We gained a lot of people during Covid; people who left us have found us, and we totally re-worked our Faith Formation program so that our parents are far more involved than they used to be. Those are things I think of first,” when reflecting upon his time here, he said.

“Because of Covid, we went virtual so we reach a lot more people now because all of the homebound can watch us at every Mass. There are people who were separated from our church, not by Covid, but who were no longer able to go who were brought back by the virtual world because we live-stream everything,” he explained.

Healing the parish community

“It was a hurting community when I came here. Father Gillespie was pulled out, we had an interim priest, and I hope I’ve raised the spirits of many people at St. Theresa Parish,” Bishop Mark said. But he stressed that his accomplishments here are a credit to the entire parish community as they were made together. “We were $500,000 in debt and we’ve done all these things and have started a significant endowment, so we are in a far better financial place than we were,” he said.

The parish was able to retire its $500,000 debt with the Archdiocese thanks in large part to the sale of property located in the rear of the church. Various fundraisers, such as the now-annual golf tournament and the new Festival of Trees, introduced during this Christmas season, will help the parish continue to contribute to its endowment, maintain its physical plant, and support its many charitable activities.

Father Agustin Anda will remain here as Parochial Vicar of St. Theresa while also serving the administrative needs of the North Region during the interim until the new pastor arrives February 1. Who that will be has not yet been announced. This priest will also be in charge of the North Region parishes as this office is now based permanently at St. Theresa’s.

A Mass to celebrate Bishop Mark’s promotion and to enable him to say goodbye to his parishioners will be announced at a later date.

Ready for this new calling

“I feel called and ready for this new job, so I am sad to leave, but I am delighted for this opportunity, so I want people to not be sad for me. I want them to be proud of me,” Bishop Mark said.

He said he will especially miss the children of the parish. “It was one moment in time and those kids are special. I will miss them. Because I am a central administration guy this may be the only time in my life I was ever pastor, these 6-1/2 years, so I am very happy to have had that opportunity,” he said.

Asked what he enjoyed most about being a pastor, he replied, “It’s a very affectionate community. I joke that I have hundreds of grandmothers telling me what to do! There is nothing I like better in this world than telling a good story to a bunch of kids about Jesus. Nothing tops it. And I was able to do the Family Mass for 6-1/2 years and I could tell the children stories so many times and hear their crazy questions and try to switch them into the story. There is nothing I like doing better in the world than telling a story to children. I won’t be doing that in my new job too much. I cherish the opportunity. On the other hand, I will now be able to re-tell stories!”

He is also thankful for the opportunity to create a wonderful staff here. “We have so many gifts on this staff and I will miss my team. I hope my new team is as good as this team,” he commented.

Being a pastor also enabled him to be “a part of people’s families; their funerals and their weddings and the significant moment in people’s lives; that is where the pastor is most present and honored to be with them and to accompany them, so that I’ll miss very much,” he said.

His new headquarters will be in Braintree and he will travel a great deal within the Archdiocese of Boston. But as far as he knows, travel outside of the Archdiocese “is for Cardinal Seán to do!”

“I am his right-hand man. Everything I do is in his name so I don’t have to ask him all the time,” he said.

“There are four dioceses in Massachusetts — Fall River, Worcester, Springfield and Boston. Those are separate entities and they all have territory. But Boston is an Archdiocese… the head of an Archdiocese is an Archbishop. Cardinal Seán is an Archbishop who has the great honor of being a Cardinal, but the head of the Boston Archdiocese does not have to be a Cardinal,” he said.

Some day in his future, Bishop Mark said, “It would please me if at some time I was a head of a diocese somewhere.”

According to Bishop Mark, O’Malley was appointed Archbishop of Boston at “an incredible time of financial crisis and of course the abuse crisis…and he has done a remarkable job of guiding us through difficult times.” He added, “I’ve been working closely with him for 20 years so he knows me very well, and I have been his Canon lawyer for a long time.”

Now 78-1/2 years old, Cardinal Seán is about 18 months shy of the typical age when cardinals retire at 80 and enter what is called “senior” status. Though a Cardinal may remain active, he will not, for instance, be allowed to vote for a new pope after the age of 80, he explained.

Grateful to be part of the solution

Bishop Mark earned a doctorate in the laws of the church, known as Canon law, following four years of study in Rome at the University of Holy Cross. He even defended his doctoral thesis in Italian, which he described as the “highlight of my language career as someone who is not good at languages!”

“Canon law is all the rules of the church, like Liturgy, such as you have to use wheat and grapes. I also did a lot of prosecuting priests who were caught up in the abuse crisis. Then, there are all the financial laws of the church,” he said.

“I went to Rome to study Canon law just before the abuse crisis, so I didn’t know I was studying for this incredible worldwide crisis but I think I was put in a place perfectly timed to be part of the solution and not the problem. I am very lucky to come home and dedicate my last 20 years trying to do the right thing, under  Cardinal Seán’s guidance,” he said. “It’s a very privileged place I’ve been in to help with this very, very serious problem, and I’m still doing the work and will continue the work as Vicar General.”

“I find it a privilege to help heal. Even though I am disgusted at what was in the past, it has been an incredible gift to have been able to work on a real problem and try to help heal the church,” Bishop Mark said.

The time he spent here as a parish priest afforded him the unique opportunity to   speak to and get to know the next generation of parishioners who were born after that crisis was addressed.

“One of the ways we could have reacted was to stay away from all children but as pastor, these children have hopefully seen a happy priest in me, one who loves what I am doing. I hope when this generation thinks of priests they think of a happy one,” Bishop Mark said. “I wouldn’t have joined the priesthood if I didn’t see happy priests.”

“But I think our biggest challenge is facing the apathy of people in their 20s and 30s. It is not even anger. Somehow we have to share the importance and love of Jesus Christ, but they are not even looking in our direction. It is a huge thing we need to do,” he said. “With Cardinal Seán, that will be part of my responsibility – evangelization in the Archdiocese of Boston. We have a large mission and we need to focus to catch people’s attention.”

Validation service New Year’s Eve

Bishop Mark’s last official service at St. Theresa’s will be held this Saturday night on New Year’s Eve. It is called “validations” and it’s a special ceremony where he marries people who were married outside the church.

“This year we have four couples. I marry them all in one ceremony and it is such a wonderful event. We start at 6 p.m., we are out by 7 p.m., and they can do whatever they want for New Year’s Eve and they’re married in the church!”

Bishop Mark explained, “When I was ordained in 1990 I did at least 40 weddings that year and my pastor did just as many. Now, we get two, three or four a year; it is that dramatic. So that is why I do the validation ceremonies on New Year’s Eve. I’ve been doing it in my region, and now I will be able to do it in the whole Archdiocese. You have to think outside the box.”

Parishioners wish him well

“The Bishop arrived at Saint Theresa’s at the time we needed him most. In many ways he helped the parish find its identity as a faith family,” commented parishioner Tony O’Brien.

“Bishop Mark holds the God-given gift of helping people the way that best serves them,” O’Brien added. “We knew that he would not be our pastor very long, mostly because his talents are needed in other places. In some ways we are obligated to share him with the world and we understand that, even if it hurts. He will always be our beloved pastor when we needed him.”

“Marilyn and I have been active at St. Theresa’s for more than 50 years and we have seen a number of priests come and go, but I can say that no one priest has had such a positive impact on our parish as has Bishop Mark,” commented parishioner Tony Sacco.

“We knew from his first day at St. Theresa’s that he was special. He has made an impact with all age groups, from the youngest to the oldest (like me). We knew that we would not have him for long because of his way with all groups. I recently told him that we could not have asked for a better shepherd,” Sacco said, adding, “While I am sad that he is going, I also know that he is destined for important work. My wish is for him to be in a position to deal with all groups of people because this is his gift. I wish him a happy new experience.”

Bishop Mark’s parting words to his flock invokes a mutual respect and affection.

“I could not have taken on this new job without the experience of being your pastor, so thank you for your training of me,” he said. “And tell them I love them.”