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lived in violence and fear. It was far from the image of church we so often lived, but it called out the best in the people and in me . His own cardinal and several assistant bishops had squandered innocence, the seeds of peace. Twisted lies from men: power and control. Submerged in the muck of covering it up and protecting what was unspeakable. God, how they turned it all so sour and sick! 29
    On December 9, 2002, Bowers joined fifty-seven others in the Boston Priests’ Forum by signing a public letter, telling Law he was “so compromised that it is no longer possible for you to exercise the spiritual leadership required for the church in Boston.” 30 News coverage of the letter was like a shot across the bow. Four days later, at a private audience with John Paul, Law resigned as archbishop of Boston.
    For the Vatican, the resignation of America’s most powerful archbishop, who nevertheless remained a cardinal, meant that whoever followed Law had to be a superb pastor and a good manager. To fill the breach until the new man was named, Rome installed a fifty-five-year-old auxiliary bishopnamed Richard Lennon with the title of Apostolic Administrator. Untarnished by the scandal, Lennon was loyal to Law, who had basically made him a bishop. Dick Lennon had a prickly personality and among priests was not exactly beloved. But he worked hard and had a commanding sense of his role in achieving whatever needs to be done. As he monitored the negotiations with the plaintiff attorneys, Lennon was drafting a plan for widespread parish closures.
    Three days before Christmas, in words aimed at the 552 victims and their attorneys, Lennon announced he was surveying church properties to put on the market “as soon as possible, so we can show our commitment” to resolve the lawsuits; liability coverage by insurers Kemper and Travelers would cover a substantial portion, according to the Globe. 31
    With all that liability coverage , wondered Peter Borré, why sell property?
    Bowers wondered how the struggling parish he had come to love would fare in Lennon’s plan. He asked for a meeting with Lennon, to no avail.
    RECONFIGURATION DAYS
    The son of a suburban deputy fire chief, Dick Lennon was six foot two; he had grown up a sports-loving kid but with a stutter so severe he rarely spoke in class, fearing humiliation. He entered Boston College, majoring in math. In 1967, after his sophomore year, he entered St. John, the diocesan seminary next door to BC in Brighton. Social protests that jolted campuses in 1968 hit St. John, too. Some seminarians clamored for direct involvement with the ghetto in Roxbury; others wanted the traditional path of enclosed study. Liberals clashed with Cardinal Cushing; half the seminarians soon left. Coming out of those years, Dick Lennon fell in love with canon law. He pursued it the hard way, teaching himself avocation-ally, from his studies in theology and the master’s he would earn in church history. He read voluminously in church law, amassing a library of three hundred books. Dick Lennon lacked the stylized polish of clerics educated in Rome, but having conquered his stutter, he could take whatever life threw in his way. In 1998, after a decade of parish work, the autodidactic canonist was plucked by Cardinal Law to be his canonical adviser. In 1999 Law named him seminary rector. In 2001 he became an auxiliary bishop. Within the priestly society he was known for his cold candor. 32
    Determined to salvage his parish, Bowers put out feelers to rent someof the unused space in the large rectory. A law firm said yes. A cell phone company approached him about installing a tower behind the steeple. Bowers was thrilled! Let the private sector subsidize the school! Build an endowment, offer scholarships to worthy children. But then he hit a wall. The chancery told pastors to make no new contractual agreements until Bishop Lennon’s parish Reconfiguration was done. No law firm rental, no cell tower revenue.
    Faced