‘Spotlight’ cardinal dead

BERNARD CARDINAL 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.

In 2002, Law was forced to leave his post for mishandling the far-reaching priest sex abuse scandal, which was broken and detailed in lengthy coverage by the Boston Globe.

Law admitted he knew about decades of child abuse and allowed dozens of offending priests to stay in communities.

He stepped down nearly a year later, but remained a cardinal and went on to serve as the archpriest of the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome. He retired in 2011.