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"… Less than one month from the age of mandatory retirement for Catholic bishops, Washington Cardinal Theodore McCarrick said he hopes to leave a legacy of kindness after his 28 years as a bishop in New York, Metuchen and Newark, N.J., and Washington.
washtimes.com/national/20050617-111640-2157r.htm
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"Every priest needs to be kind," he said. "Every bishop needs to be kind... If I try to be kind, that's the most important thing. Get the bad people made good, get the good people made better. That's my legacy."
The cardinal must send a retirement letter to Pope Benedict XVI on July 7, his 75th birthday. Whether the pope immediately accepts the letter depends on the importance of the diocese, whether the current bishop is crucial to unfinished business there, the health of the current bishop and whether the pope may have someone else lined up for the job.
"I am energetic enough [to stay]," the cardinal said, "but I have a lot of things I could do in retirement. I want to get myself ready to go home [to heaven], you know? [Retirement] would give me more time to do that."
It would also give him more time to go fishing, he said, especially in New Jersey, where he lived for 23 years. However, John Paul II, near the end of his reign, extended several cardinals' terms well past retirement age. Benedict XVI could follow suit....."