I doubt that the Pope has been responsible for appointing somebody like Cardinal Law to ANY position of authority or trust within the Catholic CHurch.
Law is a total disgrace. In addition to being incarcerated, he should be defrocked and expelled from his church.
Thanks to friends of paedophiles like Law, the Catholic church, which should be leading the charge against militant Islam, is engaged in putting out fires where it shouldn't have to be putting out fires. Again, thanks to people like Law who protected and shielded sexual predators so they could prey on new victims.
Actually, Pope John Paul DID appoint Bernard Law to be Archbishop of Boston, and conferred on him the position of Cardinal. This happened in the late 80's, and I remember that because I've known Cardinal Law for over 30 years, and was THRILLED when he was given the Red Hat.
Cardinal Law happens to be a very compassionate man who made many mistakes when dealing with a situation that was long in the making before he ever arrived in Boston. In fact, he was personally responsible for ridding the Diocese of Jackson, MS of a couple of abusers when he was Chancellor of that Diocese.
According to the Grand Jury testimony, he didn't know at first about all that had happened before he arrived in Boston because it had been handled by the Bishops of the various Dioceses within the Archdiocese. The Attorney General of the state tried his best to make the Cardinal criminally responsible, but there was no legal standing to do it. HE didn't commit the crimes, he just didn't do all he could to send the men who DID do them to jail, and he admitted that he was wrong in that.