Regarding the May 12 editorial, “New Catholic bishop has chance to turn new leaf“: Ah, the legacy of Bill Nemitz versus the Catholic bishops of Portland lives on. Less than five days after his ordination, you saw fit to send our new Bishop James T. Ruggieri the agenda for his episcopate. Even new football coaches get a longer grace period.

Of course, you had to make sure to do it publicly. The reported interview with Bishop Deeley was treated, as expected, negatively. Could you not also have interviewed the new bishop about your concerns and perhaps have had something positive to say?

I do not mean to minimize the issue of child/adult abuse. As a former facilitator in the diocese’s Protecting God’s Children certification program, I came to increasingly realize the devastation and hurt that abuse causes in the lives of those affected.

If you have read the recent articles about Bishop Ruggieri in the National Catholic Register, you would recognize that he is a good man and an excellent and involved priest and pastor. I have no doubt he will be an outstanding shepherd of all of Maine’s Catholic community and active with others as well. Why not give him that chance? As another writer in the Register recently closed on another subject: “Take heart and be charitable.”

Daniel Rooney
Springvale