LIVONIA, Mich. — The Catholic bishop of the Winona diocese for 10 years, Bernard Harrington, died at age 91. He retired in 2009 and was living at the 35-acre Senior Clergy Village near Livonia, Michigan. The village grounds include Saint Mary Mercy Hospital. The cause of death was not announced. As Winona bishop. Harrington was the Vatican appointed spiritual leader for Catholics in 20 southern Minnesota counties stretching from border to border. Although the number of parishioners continued shrinking during his cathedra, the diocese still clamed 114,000 faithful — roughly 19% of the population. Harrington’s duties also were administrative.

Legacy as bishop

Harrington’s greatest challenge was unraveling Choir-Boy Sexual Abuse scandals and cover-ups that erupted in Boston and soon engulfed the whole American Catholic church. He negotiated a $28.5 million settlement to compensate survivors of priestly abuse. The settlement required a bankruptcy reorganization of diocesan finances. In response to the scandals, which involved dozens pf priests, many ordained within the diocese over the decades, Harrington implement what he called Safe Environment Practices. He also organized a new cohort of deacon to assist in governance. Separately he created what he called the Seeds of Faith endowment for faith formation, arranged new Catholic school scholarships, and expanded services offered by Catholic Charities. He also did preliminary thinking about moving the diocesan headquarters from Winona to Rochester to reflect population shifts. He left it to his successor as bishop, John Quinn, to work through details and to the current bishop, Robert Barron, to implement the delicacies of abandoning Winona, which had been the diocese seat sine 1889.

Clerical career

Earlier Harrington was an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Detroit. He was the son of Irish immigrants in Detroit. He was ordained a priest in Detroit in 1959. His assignments included being a pastor, a superintendent of Catholic schools, and a rector of a seminary.