Cardinal Law to leave Boston Archdiocese in June

radio report | April 26 | me

[american colleen]

Cardinal Law to leave Boston Archdiocese in June for post in the Vatican - just heard on Boston news radio...

I've no further details. but I guess none are needed.

[american colleen]

catholic_list bump

[Rightwing Canuck]

Actually it sounds like it isn't a move up, but a reprimand. He'll be out of a position of power and well within the watchful eye of the Pope.

[jonatron]

Aiding and abetting rape and should result in a prison-sentance. The state prosecutors should be taking this church and it's pervert priests to court.

[sinkspur]

80 years ago, the Protestants who built Massachusetts decried the catholic immigrant influx. I think they were right.

Nothing like a little anti-Catholic bigotry this early in the morning. Interesting that you would decide to start your history of Massachusetts 80 years ago.

Protestants in Massachusetts "built" by burning people at the stake in Salem. Proud of that, I guess.

[NYer]

Report: Cardinal Law to take Vatican post

April 26, 2002 Posted: 8:50 AM EDT (1250 GMT)

Law, left, meets with Shanley in this undated photograph.

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BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- Beleaguered Boston Cardinal Bernard Law is expected to be replaced by June and assigned to a new position at the Vatican, a Boston newspaper reported Friday.

The Boston Herald quoted unnamed church officials saying Pope John Paul II would move the embattled archbishop to an undetermined post before a scheduled deposition of Law in a suit against the Boston archdiocese.

Law has faced increasing public pressure to resign for his handling of alleged sex abuse cases involving priests in his archdiocese. In one case, he moved former priest John Geoghan -- now in prison for molesting an 11-year-old boy -- from parish to parish even though he knew of allegations Geoghan had abused children.

Earlier this month, documents showed Law repeatedly transferred the Rev. Paul Shanley, another former Boston-area priest accused of sexually abusing 30 minors. Authorities say Shanley publicly endorsed sex between men and boys.

	MORE STORIES
Accuser's father: Church 'hit the snooze button'

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CNN NewsPass Video
•	Examining the issue
•
MORE STORIES
•	Pope says bishops' decisions 'wrong'
•	U.S. Cardinals arrive at Vatican
•	Leaders react, promise action to church in crisis
•	U.S. cardinals to search for sex abuse solution
•	On the Scene: Scandal provokes few headlines in Rome
•	CNN Access: Rev. Stephen Rossetti: Few priests molesters
RESOURCES
•	Transcript: The pope's remarks on the abuse scandal
•	Factfile: Church rocked by sex scandals
•	TIME.com: Catholicism in Crisis
•	The pope's letter
•	Interactive:

In diary excerpts released this week, Shanley admits having venereal disease and helping young people use drugs. The excerpts were among documents turned over to attorneys representing people suing the church over sexual abuse allegations involving Shanley.

"Much of my life these last few years has been choosing not twixt good and evil, but the less of the two evils ... my God, I've even taught kids to shoot up properly," Shanley writes.

In another section, he says, "One of the first things I do in a new city is to sign up at the local clinic for help with my VD." (Full story)

On Wednesday, at the close of a meeting between the pontiff, Law and other U.S. Roman Catholic leaders, the cardinals issued a statement saying they would seek to dismiss any "notorious" priest found guilty of "serial, predatory, sexual abuse of minors."

The statement did not endorse a "zero-tolerance policy" -- in which no instance of molestation would be tolerated.

Speaking at Rome's Fiumicino Airport on his way home to Boston, Law said he and the other cardinals helped draft the statement, but admitted he had not read the final version. He said he was "particularly grateful for the [pope's] open talk" during the meeting.

"I thought it was excellent," he said. "Very good spirit, very frank, very open." (Full story)

Sex abuse is expected to be a top issue in June at the bishops' general meeting in Dallas, where specific proposals from the cardinals will be discussed. Eight cardinals are scheduled to gather in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Friday for a previously scheduled benefit dinner.

[Corporate Law]

Go read the book The Rascal King (about James Michael Curley). Maybe you will find out that the Protestants powers in Taxachusetts are far more corrupt morally and secularly than you claim the Catholics to be. Like Sinkspur said, nothing like a little anti-Catholic bigotry to start the day.

[jwalsh07]

Good, but before he leaves town he should check with the DA.

[MassExodus]

The evil bastard is caught shuffling child rapers around and not only is he not fired, arrested or hung - he's promoted.

Figures.

[hellinahandcart]

Actually it sounds like it isn't a move up, but a reprimand.

Someone predicted last week that Law wouldn't be coming back from Rome; after that seed was planted, this is how the sentence read to me:

Cardinal Law to leave Boston Archdiocese in June for post in theout back behind theVaticanwoodshed.

He may not have been defrocked, but he's been de-flocked.

[Alberta's Child]

This is not a promotion -- he's going to spend the rest of his life in an "undetermined" (read: NON-EXISTENT) post, shuffling around the Vatican in his bedroom slippers. It will be very hard for someone in that position to serve as a lap-dog for the Kennedy family.

[PLK]

I am Catholic, and anti-Catholic bigotry aside, I am disgusted with this move. It typifies the entire scandal! Priests being moved around rather than punished has been the hallmark of this dirty business from the beginning. Too bad.

The Pope missed his opportunity to truly right the wrongs in the American Catholic Church. If he had:

- strongly denounced the criminal priests and those who covered it up
- strongly reinforced the Church teachings on homosexuality and child abuse
- fed Law to the wolves
- led the Cardinals to a "zero tolerance" rule for priests
- started an initiative to clean out the seminaries of their homosexual cults

THEN he would have done something worth doing.

[Semper Paratus]

Not so fast fatso, you have a depostion coming up next month.

[OldFriend]

Let's hope he doesn't appear in a new part of the country wreaking havoc on the unsuspecting.

[DouglasKC]

In diary excerpts released this week, Shanley admits having venereal disease and helping young people use drugs. The excerpts were among documents turned over to attorneys representing people suing the church over sexual abuse allegations involving Shanley.

How can any institution, much less an institution supposedly blessed by God, tolerate such evil for so long?

[Hibernius Druid]

80 years ago, the Protestants who built Massachusetts decried the catholic immigrant influx. I think they were right.

This is one of the most disgusting posts I've seen in a long while. It amounts to a personal attack on all Roman Catholics, a clear violation of Free Republic posting guidelines.

[Kakaze]

" The Pope missed his opportunity to truly right the wrongs in the American Catholic Church. If he had:

- strongly denounced the criminal priests and those who covered it up

- strongly reinforced the Church teachings on homosexuality and child abuse

- fed Law to the wolves

- led the Cardinals to a "zero tolerance" rule for priests

- started an initiative to clean out the seminaries of their homosexual cults

THEN he would have done something worth doing. "

Absolutely, instead of the right thing he has done the same crime....he's now going to avoid prosecution by hiding the cardinal in the vatican......yeah and I'm wrong for avoiding church and tything......screw it they will never get another dollar from me.