CARDINAL BERNARD LAW DIES AT AGE 86
Disgraced leader of Hub archdiocese tarred in priest sex abuse scandal
Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston whose years of shielding sexually abusive priests caused a generation of pain, has died at the age of 86, the Vatican said.
Law served as archbishop of Boston from 1984 until his resignation on Dec. 13, 2002, after church documents revealed he was deeply involved in the shielding and moving of priests who had been accused of sexually abusing children — stunning Catholics and community leaders who had known him as a relatively progressive archbishop deeply concerned about racial issues, youth issues and outreach to Cuba, while also a doctrinal church loyalist.
Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who represented the victims of priest sex abuse and won multimilliondollar lawsuits against archdioceses that sheltered priests, said last night that with news in recent days of Law’s impending death, “Many of my clients have expressed that Cardinal Law represents all that was wrong with the Catholic church in allowing children to be abused at the hands of priests.
“He was a typical supervisor who allowed the victims and their families to be destroyed, by turning his back on children in need of protection,” Garabedian said.
He said his clients voiced “disdain” for Law and “pain.”
“This has reminded many of my clients of how painful child abuse is,” Garabedian said.
Named archbishop of Boston Jan. 11, 1984, documents show he immediately became embroiled in the priest sex abuse scandal, when he received a letter from a bishop expressing concerns about the Rev. John Geoghan — a priest later convicted of abusing children who was eventually murdered in prison.
Barbara Dorris, executive director for SNAP — Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests — said of survivors’ reaction to Law’s death, “I don’t think there’s going to be any great sadness.”
Of the scandal that unfolded over the course of the decade and remains still unresolved, she said, “He was the first big name that got out there, where there were documents to prove what was done. We all hoped that church officials would do the right thing and he would be removed and live out the rest of his days in some out of the way place.”
She noted instead he was recalled to the Vatican and given a new title and position in the church.
“That’s when a lot of survivors got to the point of understanding that church officials appear to feel that they’re above the law. That they’re accountable to no one,” Dorris said. “So Cardinal Law is dead. All we’re doing is changing the names, but the game, if you will, remains the same.”
After long refusing to acknowledge responsibility, Law would eventually say in apology: “With all my heart, I wish to apologize once again for the harm done to the victims of sexual abuse by priests. I do so in my own name, but also
in the name of my brother priests. These days are particularly painful for the victims of John Geoghan. My apology to them and their families, and particularly to those who were abused in assignments which I made, comes from a grieving heart. I am indeed profoundly sorry.
“The trust that was broken in the lives of those suffering the effects of abuse is a trust which was built upon the selfless lives of thousands of priests who have served faithfully and well in this archdiocese throughout its history,” Law said.
“One of the sad consequences of these instances of abuse, a consequence which pales in comparison to the harm done to these most innocent of victims, is that they have placed under a cloud of suspicion the faithful priests who serve the mission of the Church with integrity.”
Law was born Nov. 4, 1931, in Torreon, Mexico, the son of an Air Force colonel. He received his bachelor’s degree from Harvard University in 1953, then studied at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Louisiana and at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio, before he was ordained as a priest in 1961 in the Natchez-Jackson, Miss., diocese.
Deeply involved in the civil rights movement, he became executive director of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Ecumenical and Interracial Affairs in Washington, D.C., in 1968.
In 1973 he was made bishop of the SpringfieldCape Girardeau diocese in southern Missouri, and in 1975 became chairman of the U.S. Bishops Committee on Ecumenical and Interracial Affairs. In 1976 he was named to the Vatican Commission on Religious Relations with Jews, and later served as an ecclesiastical delegate dealing with issues related to former Episcopal priests who join the Roman Catholic Church.
Pope John Paul II elevated him to cardinal in 1985.
His political activism included an official visit to Cuba in 1990, meeting with Fidel Castro for more than two hours; and in 1996, demonstrations in front of the White House to urge then-President Bill Clinton to sign a bill outlawing lateterm abortions.
But in 2000, as the priest abuse scandal began to make headlines, Law publicly apologized for Boston Catholics’ treatment of Jews, blacks and non-Catholic Christians and for the sexual misconduct of parish priests.
After the names of dozens of abusive priests began to emerge, with details of Law’s knowledge, on Dec. 9, 2002, 58 priests signed a letter asking Law to resign his post as archbishop. He resigned four days later.
In May 2004, Law was made Archpriest of the Patriarchal Liberian Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome. In 2011, the Vatican announced Cardinal Law’s retirement.