43. Bishop William Murphy
2004 Power List
The gradual slide of Murphy’s influence lately looks more like a landslide, but he is still the head priest at the Rockville Centre Diocese, one of the largest in the country. He has power over the spiritual needs of tens of thousands of LI Catholics, and the power to shuffle shady men of the cloth from one church to another. Recently, he was actually driven to offer an apology of sorts, but many aren’t convinced.