Boston Archdiocese seeks to rebury cardinal

BOSTON - The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston has asked a court for permission to move the remains of a former cardinal because his own alma mater has purchased the land where he’s buried.

Cardinal William O’Connell fostered the growth in size and influence of the Catholic church in Massachusetts as archbishop from 1907 to 1944. He’s buried on church land in Boston’s Brighton neighborhood.

The archdiocese sold the land to Boston College, in part to pay for settlements with victims of the clergy sex abuse crisis. The Boston Globe reported that the church said in a filing in Suffolk Probate Court on Thursday they are obligated to relocate the remains as part of the sales agreement.

The proposal is to bury O’Connell’s remains at a Catholic school in Needham he founded in 1941.