THIS STORY HAS BEEN FORMATTED FOR EASY PRINTING

An angry protest, and prayers

By Globe Staff, 7/31/2003

The Rev. Tom DiLorenzo of Holy Rosary Church in Winthrop appeared momentarily startled by the greeting he received from one of the protesters outside the Cathedral of the Holy Cross yesterday.

''Thanks a lot for standing with the victims all year, Father,'' protester Steve Lewis, who said he was molested at St. Mary's parish in Lynn in the late 1960s, shouted sarcastically to DiLorenzo.

''God bless you,'' he replied.

Lewis then yelled at DiLorenzo to ''move along,'' adding an expletive aimed at the priest.

DiLorenzo then began a loud, impromptu sidewalk prayer service with appeals for healing. ''I have cried with victims one right after the other,'' he said. ''But it's time to move on. It's a new day.''

DiLorenzo's loud prayers continued until he was quietly approached by the Rev. Christopher J. Coyne, a spokesman for the Boston Archdiocese, who tapped him on the shoulder, whispered in his ear, and then led the priest into the cathedral.

From a higher authority

Parking was a nightmare on the narrow, congested streets near the Cathedral of the Holy Cross.

A pair of Bernardine Franciscan nuns from Hyde Park, Sister Joanne and Sister de Lourdes, squeezed their car into a spot on Union Park Street underneath a sign that said it was a tow zone.

''You don't think they'll tow us, do you?'' Sister de Lourdes asked a passerby.

The two nuns thought better of it and asked a security guard at a nearby building if they could park in the building's lot.

No dice, sisters, the guard replied.

Inspired, and displaying the faith in human nature that explains why they are who they are, the nuns scribbled out a note explaining who they were and why they were parked illegally.

''If they're good Christians, they'll leave us alone,'' Sister de Lourdes said, placing the note under the wiper blade.

Decidedly low-key

Ray Flynn, the former mayor of Boston and US ambassador to the Vatican, said O'Malley's installation was ''a much more low-key event'' than the 1984 installation of Cardinal Bernard F. Law.

Standing outside St. John's Seminary, where O'Malley hosted hundreds of people for sandwiches and soft drinks after the installation Mass, Flynn noted that Law had acknowledged from the altar the presence of politicians, including Flynn, US senators Edward M. Kennedy, and John F. Kerry, and then-governor Michael S. Dukakis. Yesterday, the only secular official O'Malley singled out for thanks was Police Commissioner Paul Evans, whose officers supplied much of the security and traffic control.

Flynn approved of the new archbishop's style, including his skipping introductions of the assembled politicians.

''I remember being at the Park Plaza after Cardinal Law's installation,'' said Flynn. ''This is in good taste. It's not the time to celebrate today. This is a necessary first step.''

A lumbering slumberer

Xavier Suarez, a former mayor of Miami, attended yesterday's installation, as he had when O'Malley was made bishop in the Virgin Islands and Palm Beach. Suarez, now a lawyer in Miami, has known O'Malley some 30 years, when O'Malley ran the Spanish Catholic Center in Washington, D.C., and Suarez was a long-haired Harvard Law School student looking to do some good while interning at a law firm.

They lived together for a summer in a roach-infested apartment building in Washington.

Suarez said yesterday's installation was the most moving, and most impressive, of those he has attended.

''A little more gravitas this time,'' said Suarez. ''He reached to the heart a little more, given the circumstances. His sense of the dramatic was greater.''

On a day when O'Malley could do no wrong, Suarez revealed the prelate does have one flaw.

''He snores,'' Suarez said. ''I used to throw stuff at him.''

Dog has his day

Several dogs earned passage into the cathedral for yesterday's installation Mass, as part of their official duties, helping disabled owners with hearing and sight. But few were as well-dressed as Angus Little Bernie Law, the cocker spaniel who accompanied Sister Joan-Marie Coughlin, 58.

Coughlin, a retired nun from Cambridge, had named her dog after the cardinal she says was her mentor - and dressed him in a child's sports blazer and striped suit from the Disney store.

''He behaves better than some children in church,'' she said, standing outside the front doors after the service, holding the dog upright to show off his outfit. And she said she was sorry his namesake chose not to attend the service. ''I was wishing he was here today,'' she said of Law. ''I told him many times never to give up.''

Thomas Farragher, Kevin Cullen, Joanna Weiss, and Michael Paulson of the Globe Staff contributed to this report.

This story ran on page A24 of the Boston Globe on 7/31/2003.
© Copyright 2003 New York Times Co.