Bishop O’Connell named chairman-elect of key USCCB committee

Will head the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on the Protection of Children and Young People

Bishop Mark W. O'Connell

Bishop Mark W. O’Connell, bishop-designate of the Diocese of Albany, was named chairmen-elect of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on the Protection of Children and Young People at their annual fall meeting in Baltimore last week. 

“Having been involved in this area of the protection of minors and young people for 24 years and having been a member of the Committee on the Protection of Children and Young People for the past five years, I feel ready, qualified and very willing to take on this new responsibility beginning in November 2026,” said Bishop O’Connell.

Bishop O’Connell was elected over Bishop John P. Dolan of Phoenix, by a vote of 116 to 106. Bishop O’Connell will serve for one year as the chairman-elect of his committee before starting a three-year term as chairman at the conclusion of the bishops’ 2026 fall plenary assembly. 

At his first media briefing in Albany last month, Bishop ­O’Connell was asked if the Church will ever see the abuse scandal in the rearview mirror.

“If you want it to go away,” he responded, “that’s not who I am as bishop. I want it to be dealt with. I want to comfort those who need comfort. I want to continue to do what I’ve done for many years which is to meet with victim/survivors, hear their stories, be with them, cry with them. It’s not going away, and it would be a sin to want it to go away.”

Bishop O’Connell was a canon lawyer for the Archdiocese of Boston when the abuse scandal broke out there in early 2002.

“I feel very blessed for my timing on that,” he said at the press conference. “God has blessed me with being part of the solution.”

On Oct. 20, Bishop O’Connell was appointed by Pope Leo XIV to succeed retiring Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger as head of the Diocese of Albany. His Installation Mass is scheduled for Dec. 5 at St. Edward the Confessor Church in Clifton Park. Bishop O’Connell has been an auxiliary bishop of Boston since 2016.

“I ask for the prayers of the people of Albany as my new life begins as your bishop to safeguard all minors and young people in the Albany Diocese first and to assist this critical role of the United States bishops,” Bishop O’Connell said.

 — Staff and OSV News