I'll repeat, Give it a rest. He was in the United States for a full year after he left Boston. He was available every time he was called for a deposition or for the Grand Jury. He fulfilled all the requirements of the State of Massachusetts in the case, and I repeat, was never charged with any crime. After being in Maryland for that time, the Pope called him to Rome to be the head of the Basilica of St. Mary Major. It is not unusual for an American Cardinal to work out of Rome. Justin Cardinal Rigali has done it, as have others. from other countries. Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger was from Germany, but has worked in Rome for years, too. There are no charges pending against Cardinal Law that would cause him to have to be be extradited from any country in the world, and he can come and go as he pleases.
If you want to hate him, go ahead, but at least you'll have the FACTS in front of you as you continue. The most reprehensible thing the Cardinal did was to follow the suggestions of the 'experts' and psychologists who told the Diocese that these priests were 'healed' of their problems and that it was ok to have them back in ministry. Of course, we now know that this is not true, but it was the 'conventional wisdom' until a few years ago. The Cardinal and many Bishops didn't do anything differently than many other institutions in this country faced with the same problem of people in authority abusing the children in their charge. It was not right, and looking back on it, the Cardinal has admitted that, but at the time, it was what was being done across the board.
In my opinion, when the priests were found to be back to their old ways, they should have been de-frocked immediately and turned over to the cops. In some cases, the parents were the ones who made the choice not to prosecute because they didn't want their children's plight to be publicized. When the children grew up they began pressing for the justice they deserved. By the way, it was Josef Cardinal Ratzinger who wrote the most recent rules making it easier now for Dioceses to de-frock abusive priests.
I'll give it a rest the minute the Church actually starts treating priests that have these kind of allegations against them as potential criminals instead of PR problems. So far there's been no indication that the next round will be handled any differently than the last round.
No the most reprehensible thing he did was even getting shrinks involved in the first place. These people were being accused of one of the single most heinous crimes a person can commit, when information comes to you that someone you have authority over might be a pedophile you don't go to shrinks to find out if they're "healed" you let the cops decide if the allegations are true, if they are they go to jail and you defrock them.
Every institution that has faced this problem and handled it the way the Catholic Church did became enablers or pedophiles and should hang their heads in shame. I'm not denying that the Church isn't alone in this, but they get an extra level of culpability being an institution of moral teaching.
In my opinion there never should have been an opportunity to find out they had gone back to their old ways. Hopefully Benedict XVI will continue down that path and the Church will actually begin to deal with this type of problem in a way that is deserving of the moral authority the Church claims.