Eastern Connecticut has upwards of 200,000 Catholics – as many as 232,000 in 2021 – so when the Norwich diocese gets a new bishop, a sizable portion of the population is affected.

Because it is such a large number of those living, working, going to school and retiring here, the activities of their diocese also ripple outward to the larger community. Catholic schools and charitable agencies that help feed, shelter and care for people don’t limit their services to Catholics.

And when something goes very wrong, as it did with clerical sexual abuse of minors in the diocese’s past, the public wonders about what happens next with the Diocese of Norwich and its need for a new spiritual leader.

Whoever takes over as successor to Bishop Michael R. Cote will need to be not only a pastoral leader but also a diplomat and a peacemaker. He must deal with the bankruptcy and lawsuits that continue to roil the diocese.

Most of all, he ought to deal quickly and fairly with those who have sued for compensation.

The diocese, which covers four of the eight Connecticut counties and Fishers Island in New York, has been operating with the oversight of Archbishop Christopher Coyne of Hartford since Bishop Cote retired in September at age 75.

The last several of the bishop’s 21 years in Norwich were marked by painful attempts to resolve the cases of more than 100 adults who filed claims of sexual abuse by clerics when they were juveniles. Despite a selloff of assets, Cote retired with the claimants still waiting.

Over two decades, Catholics and community leaders got to know Michael Cote as the quietest of leaders. His style differed greatly from that of his predecessor, Daniel Hart, who was continually out in the parishes, and the man before him, Daniel P. Reilly, a hearty personality and a national figure among U.S. bishops.

It was mostly under Bishop Reilly, however, that the alleged abuse occurred and was allowed to continue. Bishop Cote, who was not even in eastern Connecticut at the time it happened, had to clean up a mess he didn’t make.

That task seemed to drive him even further away from the public eye, not least because the diocese’s lawyers would not want him be asked about the case.

The withdrawal came at a cost, presumably to the bishop and definitely to the people in the pews. Catholics got used to not seeing their bishop except at sacramental events and in an annual video for the appeal that funds the diocesan charities. Events like the Blessing of the Fleet in Stonington were handed to other clergy. Opportunities to mingle were missed.

Such absence leaves a particular type of vacuum. The man who fills it could be either a known conservative or a supporter of modernization, but if he is a shepherd who gets to know his flock and they to know him, that could be the start of an answer to a prayer.

Since Bishop Cote’s resignation almost three months ago, every Mass in every parish includes a prayer asking God to send a worthy leader.

Worthiness, it seems to me, has to start with a leader who would get the diocese past the paralyzing injustice of the unresolved claims. People may assume that sooner or later, there will be a resolution, but later is already here. The alleged abuse took place early in the lives of people who are now middle-aged and older.

The scandal continues globally as well; it recently ended the tenure not of a Catholic prelate but of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the head of the Anglican church, who was criticized, as many Catholic bishops have been, for failing to end the abuse.

For all the issues on which the global Church’s conservatives and progressives disagree, how can this one persist? How about the Diocese of Norwich taking a lead on justice and mercy?

At its core, all religion, like all politics, is local. People in parishes or local congregations of any faith have a way of seeing beyond the divisions. They tend to care about each other more than about issues.

A good fit for the Catholics of eastern Connecticut would be a bishop who shares that wise kindness and would make a priority of ending the injustice.

Lisa McGinley is a member of The Day Editorial Board.