Former Archbishop Bernard Law dies at 86 Story highlights Law's funeral will be Thursday at St. Peter's Basilica, the Vatican says He resigned as Boston's archbishop in amid scandal. Law died early Wednesday in Rome following a long illness , the Vatican said.
Mary Major after he was forced to resign in as archbishop of Boston. Law's name became emblematic of the scandal that continues to trouble the church and its followers after a Boston Globe investigation revealed that he and other bishops covered up child abuse by priests in the Boston Archdiocese.
Law at the time apologized to victims of John Geoghan, a priest who had been moved from parish to parish, despite Law's knowledge of his abuse of young boys. Geoghan was convicted in of indecent assault and battery on a year-old boy. Law never faced criminal sanctions for his role in allowing abusive priests to remain in parishes. The scandal reverberated through the church, exposing similar allegations worldwide that compromised its moral authority and led to years of multimillion-dollar settlements.
Read More. Law will get a full cardinal's funeral at the Vatican's St. Cardinal Bernard Law, disgraced in Boston clergy sex abuse scandal, dies in Rome. Show Caption. Hide Caption. Cardinal Bernard Law, disgraced in scandal has died.
Law was the Boston archbishop in when court documents revealed he had failed to stop priests who molested children. Victims angry at Cardinal Bernard Law. Clergy sex abuse victims are expressing anger at disgraced former Archbishop Cardinal Bernard Law, who has died at the age of Law was Archbishop of Boston when it was revealed that he failed to stop priests who molested children.
Exclusive: The 'essential' story of 'Spotlight'. The real-life Boston Globe journalists of "Spotlight" discuss finding the truth in their Catholic Church investigation in this exclusive behind-the-scenes video. Spotlight's unfinished business: Our view. Born Nov. Air Force colonel and a mother who was a Presbyterian convert to Catholicism. He was ordained in and campaigned for civil rights in Mississippi, sometimes traveling in the trunks of cars for safety.
Law was a prominent voice in Massachusetts and beyond, especially on abortion. He publicly challenged public officials such as Gov. William Weld and Lt. Paul Cellucci over their support for abortion rights. The cardinal was among a chorus of bishops sharply critical of Geraldine Ferraro, the Democratic nominee for vice president and a Catholic over her support for abortion rights. Under President George W.
Bush, Law was a regular visitor to the White House. Within the church, he was devoted to building Catholic-Jewish relations, including leading a delegation of Jewish and other Massachusetts leaders in a visit to the Auschwitz death camp in Poland. He studied medieval history at Harvard University, from which he graduated in His first assignment was in the Natchez-Jackson diocese in Mississippi. Amid boiling racial hatred, the young priest helped found and then led an interfaith council on human relations.
A Unitarian minister who served with him was shot, according to the biographical sketch, and the home of a rabbi was bombed. Cardinal Law reportedly received death threats.
Later, in Washington, he joined the organisation now known as the U. Conference of Catholic Bishops and led a committee on interreligious understanding. He served as bishop of Springfield-Cape Girardeau in Missouri before succeeding Humberto Medeiros as archbishop of Boston's 2 million Catholics in The next year, he was elevated to cardinal, a prince of the church.
In Boston, Cardinal Law was credited with helping to ease race relations during the divisive court-ordered busing for public schools. He urged voters to make abortion, which the Catholic Church opposes, "the critical issue" in elections. Politically well-connected, he spoke as frequently as once a month with George H. Bush during his presidency, the Globe reported. In international affairs, Cardinal Law became a visible envoy for the church.
He met with Cuban leader Fidel Castro eight years before John Paul's historic visit to the Communist country in , travelled to Vietnam, and led humanitarian relief efforts after natural disasters in Latin America. Reflecting on his accomplishments, O'Connor paraphrased a line from Shakespeare's tragedy Julius Caesar.
Cardinal Law's public response to sexual abuse within the clergy could be traced at least to , when he was confronted by claims that a former Massachusetts priest, James Porter, had molested dozens of children in the s. Cardinal Law decried "the tragedy of a priest betraying the sacred trust of priestly service" but described abusive clergy as "the rare exception. In , Porter was sentenced to 18 to 20 years in prison.
Three years later, a Waltham, Massachusetts, woman filed the first in what would be a raft of lawsuits against another priest - Geoghan - whom she said had abused her three sons.
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