Seán Patrick O'Malley OFMCap

Born Patrick O'Malley in Lakewood, Ohio, on 29 June 1944, he entered the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, professed his first vows in 1965, and was ordained a priest on 29 August 1970. He took a PhD in Spanish and Portuguese literature at the Catholic University of America, taught there, and founded Washington's Centro Católico Hispano for immigrants. Consecrated a bishop on 2 August 1984, he served the Virgin Islands (1984–92), Fall River (1992–2002), and Palm Beach (2002–03) — each appointment, pointedly, to a diocese battered by scandal.

On 1 July 2003 John Paul II named him Archbishop of Boston, successor to Cardinal Law after the abuse crisis exploded there; he was installed on 30 July and served for twenty-one years. Benedict XVI created him a cardinal on 24 March 2006, with the title of Santa Maria della Vittoria. Francis made him a member of his Council of Cardinals in 2013 and, in 2014, founding president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors — the Church's first global safeguarding body — which he led until 2025. He retired as archbishop of Boston on 5 August 2024, succeeded by Richard Henning. His motto is Quodcumque dixerit facite — “do whatever He says.”