Boston Archdiocese has asked a court for permission to unearth the entombed body of Cardinal William H. O'Connell and move his remains after his alma mater Boston College purchased the land where he is buried. The proposed disinterment is rich with historical irony, because when O'Connell first purchased land in Brighton as a headquarters for the archdiocese, he insisted that the remains of a group of Sulpician priests be dug up and removed from the property, the Boston Globe reports.
"It is no longer possible to honor the late cardinal's wishes relative to his burial," Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley and the trustees of Boston College said in a joint filing in Suffolk Probate and Family Court yesterday.
"The petitioning parties seek this court's approval to reinter the cardinal's remains on a site approved by the court."
O'Connell served as archbishop of Boston from 1907 to 1944, a period of extraordinary growth, in size and influence, for the Catholic population of Boston.
He was a powerful and influential prelate who was respected, if not always loved, but his reputation has been complicated in the years since his death by two biographies that have taken critical looks at his lengthy tenure.
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