Central figure in clergy abuse scandal dies

Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston whose failures to stop child molesters in the priesthood sparked what would become the worst crisis in American Catholicism, has died, a church official said Tuesday. He was 86.

Law had been sick and was recently hospitalized in Rome.

Law was once one of the most important leaders in the U.S. church, influencing Vatican appointments to American dioceses and helping to set priorities for the nation’s bishops.

But in January 2002, The Boston Globe began a series of reports that revealed that Law had transferred abusive clergy among parish assignments for years without alerting parents or police. Within months, Catholics around the country demanded to know whether their bishops had done the same.

Law tried to manage the scandal in his own archdiocese by first refusing to comment, then apologizing and promising reform. But thousands more church records were released describing new cases of how Law and others expressed more care for accused priests than for victims. Amid a groundswell against the cardinal, including rare public rebukes from priests, Law asked to resign and the pope said yes.

It was a stunning fall from grace for Law and a rare step for the church, which deeply resists public pressure. Since 1950, more than 6,500, or about 6 percent of U.S. priests, have been accused of molesting children and the American church has paid more than $3 billion in settlements to victims, according to studies commissioned by the U.S. bishops and media reports.