✣ US cardinal at centre of abuse crisis dies
What happened? Cardinal Bernard Law, who resigned as Archbishop of Boston when it became clear he had knowingly transferred priests accused of sexually abusing children, died last month at the age of 86. Cardinal Sodano, as dean of the College of Cardinals, celebrated the funeral Mass at St Peter’s Basilica. Pope Francis read the customary prayers. Cardinal Sodano said: “Each one of us can sometimes lack in fidelity to our mission”. Several abuse survivors criticised the ceremony. What the Boston media said Boston Globe reporter Mike Rezendes, who helped to expose the diocese’s failures, said: “When we published our first story revealing that [Cardinal Law] was at the centre of a cover-up of clergy sexual abuse it was like an atom bomb going off.” The cardinal’s death was “the end of a long, sad, tragic chapter in the annals in the contemporary Church”. In the Boston Herald, Joe Fitzgerald said the cardinal’s character remained mysterious. “There’s no question priests were being protected and children weren’t, which, in every proven instance, was indefensible and despicable.” But what had motivated the cardinal’s actions? Fitzgerald quoted a priest saying there had been a “mindset” of dealing with problems internally, which dated from “a time when protecting the institution was necessary”. What the vaticanisti said To many, wrote John Allen at Crux, Cardinal Law’s funeral must have seemed “untoward”. But regardless of whether he should have received a funeral at St Peter’s, this was far from “business as usual”. A cardinal’s death is usually followed by “gushing tributes” in the official newspapers of the Vatican and the Italian bishops’ conference. Those were conspicuous by their absence. Also, a funeral Mass is not a sign of total approval. “It’s more akin to a final send-off, placing the individual before God, who will be the final judge of their worthiness.” At firstthings.com, Phil Lawler said the cardinal’s death reminded us of a “painful” truth. “When Church leaders forsake the truth in the hope of protecting their own status, they forfeit their only legitimate claim to public respect.”
