Conducting a pre-installment news conference at St. Mary’s Seminary, Archbishop Edwin O’Brien told reporters today that he wants to be a “good citizen” in the community as Pope Benedict XVI expects of him.
“(I don’t want to) just observe the laws, but contribute to the common good,” O’Brien said this afternoon. “The church is not an island. The church is interacting with the common good every day.”
O’Brien will become the 15th leaders of American Catholicism’s oldest diocese at his 2 p.m. installment mass.
Outgoing church leader William Cardinal Keeler gave to O’Brien a cross that belong to the original bishop of the Baltimore Diocese, John Carroll.
When asked by Papal Nuncio Pietro Sambi, who serves as the Vatacin’s top diplomat in the U.S., if O’Brien would accept a papal appointment, O’Brien replied, “Yes,” drawing applause.
