O'Connell had brought healing to Palm Beach diocese.(South Florida Sun-Sentinel)

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. _ Even at the depth of his shame, Bishop Anthony J. O'Connell laid himself open to his peers, his parishioners and all of South Florida during his public admission Friday that he inappropriately touched a teenage seminary student 25 years ago.

It's that candor _ coupled with smiling Irish eyes and a keen sense of humor _ that endeared O'Connell to the Palm Beach County community when he arrived more than three years ago.

O'Connell, 63, stepped into an aching diocese in January 1999 after the resignation of Bishop J. Keith Symons. Symons, who'd been Palm Beach County Diocese's bishop since 1990, confessed in 1998 to sexually molesting …