More than three decades of Baltimore?s Catholic leadership were in the sanctuary of the Basilica of the Assumption in downtown Baltimore for Thursday?s noontime Mass as Cardinal William Keeler introduced his successor, Archbishop Edwin O?Brien, at his first public ceremony.
Keeler?s predecessor, retired Archbishop William Borders, 94 and moving slowly, also was one of the vested concelebrants, who included all four auxiliary bishops, to welcome their new leader.
“I want to express my thanks to the Holy Father” for naming his successor, said Keeler, who spoke before Mass and gave the homily. “I?ve known Archbishop O?Brien more than 20 years.”
O?Brien made brief remarks at the opening of Mass, telling the worshippers that together, they were about to do “the most important thing we can do ? thanking the Father for giving us Jesus.”
The midday service attracted hundreds, expanded by workers from the archdiocesan offices across the street, two groups of Catholic teens in summer programs and others hoping to catch a glimpse of the new leader. The renovation of the basilica has been Keeler?s pride and joy in recent years as he restored the first Roman Catholic cathedral in the U.S. to its appearance as designed by Benjamin Latrobe, architect of the U.S. Capitol.
As archbishop, Keeler asked for prayers for O?Brien and for himself. The part of the Eucharistic prayer in which the celebrant prays for the pope and the local bishop by name used Keeler?s new title ? “apostolic administrator” for archdiocese until O?Brien is installed.
At the end of Mass, O?Brien called it “a very special moment” and said the welcome from his first hours “made a very strong impression on me.”
After the Mass, Keeler, wearing a cardinal?s red biretta and cassock with a white surplice, haltingly left the sanctuary following the other bishops and priests, with a cane in one hand and his other on the arm of a priest. The congregation broke into prolonged spontaneous applause.
