The voice of the Catholic Church at the State House, longtime lobbyist Richard Dowling, will be retiring in November, and the Maryland bishops have appointed his deputy, Mary Ellen Russell, to  succeed him.

For 24 years, Dowling, 67 and a lawyer, has represented the Maryland Catholic Conference, the bishops in charge of 1 million members in nearly 300 parishes.

He championed the church’s positions against abortion, the death penalty and gay marriage, and supported programs for the poor and immigrants.

“One of the strengths of the church as it engages in the public square is its counter-cultural agenda, which we view as entirely consistent, but which many see as a puzzlement,” Dowling told The Examiner from Newport, R.I., where he was attending a meeting of Catholic Conference directors from throughout the country and at which he announced

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his retirement.

Dowling said one of his biggest disappointments in his job was “the enactment of one of the most permissive abortion laws in the country” in the 1990s, a law the church failed to repeal in a referendum.

He said he is happier with progress made on abolishing the death penalty, but “concern for the poor has not been properly attended to” after progress on those issues under Gov. William Donald Schaefer.

Russell, 50, has been at the conference for 11 years and is a strong advocate for state funding to aid the 136,000 students in Catholic and other nonpublic schools. In 2000, she helped secure funding for textbooks and technology for students at private schools.

llazarick@baltimoreexaminer.com