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Hope the following info is helpful to you. This was posted on Free Republic, I got it thru Google.

Cardinal Law Not Exactly Homeless
The New York Times | May 28, 2004 | Al Baker

Posted on 06/02/2004 4:24:38 PM PDT by Arguss

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 statement said that Cardinal Law, 72, would succeed the 82-year-old Italian Cardinal Carlo Furno, but it did not say when. It made no mention of Cardinal Law's new responsibilities, but a Vatican official said that "now he will be responsible for one of the four most important basilicas" in Rome. "He will be in charge of the administration of the priests and anything related to the basilica," the official said of Cardinal Law. He added that the post "is not a position of power."

The appointment angered the cardinal's critics and others who see it as a reward.

David G. Clohessy, the national director of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, a nonprofit support group based in Chicago, chided church leaders in Rome for what he called insensitivity to abuse victims.

"Why can't the Vatican officials see that any position of honor afforded to Law will inevitably and needlessly cause more pain to hundreds who have been abused and have already suffered enough?" Mr. Clohessy said. He added, "It just rubs salt into already deep wounds for parishioners, victims and their families."

Cardinal Law, who has been serving as chaplain at the Sisters of Mercy of Alma convent in Clinton, Md., could not be reached for comment.

It was at a meeting in the Vatican on Dec. 13, 2002, that Pope John Paul II accepted the resignation of Cardinal Law, then the senior American prelate in the Roman Catholic Church. The resignation came after nearly a year of revelations that the cardinal and archdiocesan officials that he supervised had repeatedly allowed priests accused of sexual abuse to remain in the ministry. The news of Cardinal Law's new position seemed to tear at emotional scars from those events.

"It's pretty offensive for most Catholics, and the timing couldn't be worse," said David Gibson, author of "The Coming Catholic Church" (Harper San Francisco, 2003). "They're just cleaning up the mess in Boston and closing parishes, and he's getting the ultimate golden parachute. He's getting a beautiful apartment in Rome in one of the four major basilicas in Christendom."

Despite his resignation in Boston, Cardinal Law has remained a powerful American figure in the Vatican. He has posts in as many as nine Vatican congregations, or departments, including the one that determines church leadership worldwide by nominating candidates for bishop. He is a member of the Congregation for Clergy, which has a role in handling sexual abuse cases that are sent to Rome. Now that Cardinal Law is an archpriest in Rome, it will clear the way for his successor in Boston, Archbishop Sean O'Malley, to be made a cardinal, Mr. Gibson said. Cardinals can vote in the conclave to choose the next pope.

The appointment could be financially lucrative for Cardinal Law. His predecessor in the job, Cardinal Furno, received a 10,000 euro monthly stipend, or about $12,000, said a former Vatican official who is a friendly acquaintance of Cardinal Furno. Cardinal Furno lived in a palatial apartment alongside the right flank of the basilica that is reserved for the archpriest, said the former official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"It's the classical Roman apartment with frescoes on the wall," the former official said. Cardinal Furno paid for costly renovations, he said, adding, "It's endless."