Richard Lennon

[3] In 1965, Lennon graduated[4] from Matignon High School[3] in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he was a member of the National Honor Society.

[4] He was awarded a Master of Church History degree in 1984 from St. John's, In 1988, Lennon was appointed as assistant for canonical affairs for the archdiocese, working for Auxiliary Bishop William Murphy.

Lennon later criticized Murphy for funding a job placement program for priests accused of sexual abuse of minors.

[1] In 2000, while working as an aide to Cardinal Bernard Law, Lennon wrote a letter certifying that Paul Shanley, an archdiocesan priest, was in good standing for a transfer.

[citation needed] On June 29, 2001, Pope John Paul II named Lennon as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Boston.

In a documentary on the clergy sexual abuse and church closings in the Boston area that aired in 2007 on PBS's Frontline, Lennon tried to prevent the filming of "exterior shots of the archdiocese's chancery building".

However, a portion of these churches were also in need of major capital investment after years of delayed maintenance, which was not always readily evident when examined from the outside.

Its pastor, Reverend Robert Marrone and many of his parishioners decided to form without Lennon's approval a new congregation, the Community of St. Peter.

On March 4, 2013, Lennon excommunicated Marrone latae setentiae (automatically by committing the offense) for having disobeyed him by participating in the schism.

[12] In July 2011, due to the discord created by the parish closings, Lennon requested that the Vatican conduct an apostolic visit to the diocese to assess the situation.