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The article, from the somewhat sordid “Daily Mail,” reprints Italian news reports. In pertinent part: So when the appearance of a disgraced cardinal threatened to cast a shadow over his first engagement, Francis I made sure it couldn’t happen again – by banning him from his own church. Cardinal Bernard Law resigned as Archbishop of Boston in 2002, after being accused of actively covering up for a litany of paedophile priests.’ Despite the scandal which exploded to engulf the entire church, he was given an honorary position at the Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore, in Rome. Though now retired, the cardinal...

Vatican City, Nov 21, 2011 / 05:55 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict accepted the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law, former Archbishop of Boston, and appointed Spanish Archbishop Santos Abril y Castelló as the new archpriest of the Basilica of St. Mary Major. Cardinal Law, who resigned in 2002 as Archbishop of Boston in the wake of the sex abuse scandal, turned 80 on Nov. 4.A Vatican official explained to CNA on Nov. 21 that although the official retirement age for a post such as archpriest is 80, it is customary for cardinals to hold their positions for a longer period of time....

The Vatican has defrocked the priest who was the first in Massachusetts convicted of sexual abuse more than two decades ago, the Boston Archdiocese said Friday.In 1984, Eugene O'Sullivan was sentenced to probation after he admitted sodomizing a 13-year-old altar boy. A condition of his sentence was that he not be allowed to work with children.But O'Sullivan was later assigned to four New Jersey parishes. He was recalled to Boston in 1992 after church officials learned of another allegation against him dating to his time in Massachusetts.The Vatican's action to defrock O'Sullivan means he may no longer function as a...

Just heard a radio talk show discussing the fact the Vatican has given Cardinal Law, he of the Boston pedophile scandal, a prominent and honoured role in the Pope's funeral...assuming this is true and I gather it must be who is the lame brain who thought that up...... someone is suggesting all Americans should boycott that mass to give the Vatican a message it seems Rome doesn't think the covering up of buggering small boys is problematic..... as it is Law is getting away with murder......with a cushy position in Rome why would you want to detract from the focus...

To the Editor New York Times: When I read about Cardinal Bernard F. Law's appointment as archpriest of St. Mary Major Basilica in Rome, I didn't know whether to laugh, cry or give up my collar (news article, May 28). There are priests who are guilty of a single incident of misconduct 20 or more years ago. As a result, they have been permanently stripped of their priestly faculties; they cannot wear a collar or present themselves as priests. Having no other means of support, they are allowed to live in their communities and contribute what they can by answering...

May 28, 2004 Cardinal Law Given Post at Vatican By AL BAKER ROME, May 27 - Cardinal Bernard F. Law, who was forced to resign as leader of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston after a long and painful sexual abuse scandal involving clergy members, was chosen by Pope John Paul II on Thursday to head a basilica in Rome. A statement released in the Vatican's daily bulletin announced that Cardinal Law, who resigned in 2002, would become the archpriest of St. Mary Major Basilica, a church in a downtown neighborhood of Rome that is under direct Vatican jurisdiction. The...

It wasn't enough to evict parishioners from 65 churches in the scandal-stained Archdiocese of Boston? The Vatican had to choose the same week to install the chief architect of this disaster in a Roman basilica? Set aside the fundamental depravity of rewarding an unindicted coconspirator in serial child rape with a plush posting to the Eternal City. How much clearer a signal could the Roman Catholic Church send to the faithful that it administers justice in two tiers, one for the laity and another for its clerics?.... Saying the occasional Mass for five nuns in a suburban Maryland convent, between...

Vatican Appoints Cardinal Law Head of Rome Basilica Thursday, May 27, 2004 VATICAN CITY — Pope John Paul II (search) on Thursday gave Cardinal Bernard F. Law (search) an official position in Rome, naming the former Boston archbishop who resigned in the sex abuse scandal as head of a basilica.

BOSTON (AP) _ Clergy members and others in the Boston Archdiocese likely sexually abused more than 1,000 people over a period of six decades, Massachusetts' attorney general said Wednesday, calling the scandal so massive it ``borders on the unbelievable.'' The report, the result of a grand jury investigation that explored whether church hierarchy should be charged criminally for turning a blind eye to allegations of abuse, said the archdiocese received complaints from 789 alleged victims, involving more than 250 clergy and other workers. However, when other sources are considered, the attorney general said, the abuse likely affected more than 1,000...

(Rome) It is almost impossible to know what really goes on behind the scenes at a place as secretive as the Vatican. Running the worldwide Roman Catholic Church with its more than one billion members is obviously an enormous undertaking and the important decisions are made by a few powerful clerics headed, of course, by Pope John Paul II. But the Pontiff is 83 years old and not in good health. For Americans concerned about the declining image of the Church in this country, the question of the Pope's competency is crucial. With that in mind, I recently traveled to...

The Boston Globe has won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for meritorious public service for its coverage of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests, it was announced yesterday. The Pulitzer board cited the Globe's ''courageous, comprehensive coverage,'' which ''pierced secrecy, stirred local, national, and international reaction, and produced changes'' in the church. ''We're thrilled to be given this recognition, which is the highest distinction a newspaper can receive,'' said the Globe's publisher, Richard Gilman. ''The award validates our belief that the Globe's work on this story, and stories like it, is the ultimate public service that we can provide to the...

If Cardinal Bernard Law hoped to bury the sex abuse scandal demoralising America's Catholic church by resigning and begging for forgiveness yesterday, he was soon proved wrong. Lawyers for the hundreds of alleged victims of priests vowed to press on with their claims for compensation from the Boston diocese. "This is a monster," said Mr Mitchell Garabedian, a lawyer for some of more than 450 alleged victims suing the diocese. "His resignation is not going to be a magic wand when all of a sudden everything is OK. "I'm not going away. The victims are not going away." After Boston,...

Law resigns as Boston archbishop 12/13/2002 Associated Press VATICAN CITY - Cardinal Bernard Law, under intense fire in a church sex abuse scandal, resigned Friday as Boston archbishop, the Vatican announced. The Vatican said Pope John Paul II had accepted the resignation after the two men held talks Friday morning. The pope named Bishop Richard Lennon an auxiliary bishop in Boston, to run the diocese temporarily. "I am profoundly grateful to the Holy Father for having accepted my resignation as archbishop of Boston," Law said in a written statement released by the Vatican. "It is my fervent prayer that...

VATICAN CITY - Cardinal Bernard Law, under intense fire in the sex abuse scandal, resigned Friday as Boston archbishop, the Vatican announced. The Vatican said Pope John Paul II accepted the resignation after the two men talked Friday morning. The pope named Bishop Richard Lennon, an auxiliary bishop in Boston, to run the diocese temporarily."I am profoundly grateful to the Holy Father for having accepted my resignation as archbishop of Boston," Law said in a written statement released by the Vatican. "It is my fervent prayer that this action may help the archdiocese of Boston to experience the healing, reconciliation...

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Boston's Cardinal Law Offers His Resignation - Headline Only as Per Fox News Online

The sex, drugs and paedophilia scandal in the heart of the US Catholic Church has brought the Boston archdiocese to the edge of ruin, reports Julian Coman Leo Inzaghi, the manager of the Caffe dello Sport in Boston's Italian district, stopped reading the local newspapers last week. As a practising Catholic and a father, he found their contents too shocking. "My wife telephoned me and said, 'Have you seen what the Church knew about Father Nyhan?' It turned out that the priest at the private school where we sent our daughter was transferred there after being accused of molesting two...

BOSTON (AP) - After months of criticism for his role in the Catholic church's sex abuse scandal, Cardinal Bernard Law in recent weeks had restored some normalcy to his duties leading the Boston Archdiocese and resumed making high-profile public appearances. But lurid revelations this past week have renewed anger with Law, and some priests even plan to debate whether the cardinal should keep his job. Personnel files made public Tuesday, among documents handed to lawyers for dozens of alleged victims, contained some of the most spectacular allegations to emerge so far, suggesting church officials tolerated priests with a range of...

BOSTON –– A financial panel of the Boston Archdiocese gave Cardinal Bernard Law permission Wednesday to file for bankruptcy as the church tries to settle potentially crippling lawsuits in the priest sex abuse scandal. Law would need approval from the Vatican before filing for bankruptcy.

In a sworn deposition released a week ago, Bernard Cardinal Law said he was unaware of sexual misconduct by priests until 1973, when he first heard of charges against his former seminary schoolmate and fellow Mississippi priest George Broussard. "It wasn't on my radar screen," he said to questions by attorney Roderick MacLeish Jr., who is suing the Archdiocese of Boston on behalf of several families claiming abuse by the Rev. Paul Shanley. But two other men who attended the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio, with Law and Broussard in the late 1950s and early '60s say the school...