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Byline: Stevenson Swanson
BOSTON _ Draped in the regalia of the church, an assembly of cardinals, bishops and the Knights of Columbus will furnish the pomp and pageantry when a humble friar formally becomes the leader of this city's Catholic Archdiocese this week.
But another group among the 2,500 guests that Bishop Sean Patrick O'Malley has invited to his installation ceremony will provide a sober reminder that this is far from a triumphant moment in the American Catholic Church.
Sitting in the pews of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross will be many Boston-area Catholics who say they were sexually abused by predator priests while the leaders of the Boston archdiocese conspired to keep the crimes a secret.
That they were invited to the Wednesday ceremony is a sign of the seriousness with which the unconventional O'Malley views the pervasive scandal that has made the nation's forth-largest archdiocese the focal point of the gravest crisis in the history of American Catholicism.
That many of the victims are planning to attend is a testament to the wary hope of this city's 2.1 million Catholics that the worst may be over.
They are counting on O'Malley, who has led two smaller dioceses involved by prior sexual abuse crises, to restore stability to an archdiocese that has…
Source: HighBeam Research, Catholics hoping new Boston Bishop O'Malley quells sex-abuse crisis.