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Former Boston archbishop to lead a Mass of mourning for pope
Boston Herald ^ | Thursday, April 7, 2005 - Updated: 01:45 PM EST | By Associated Press

Posted on 04/07/2005 4:09:47 PM PDT by StoneColdGOP

VATICAN CITY - Cardinal Bernard Law, who resigned in disgrace as archbishop of Boston over his role in the clergy sex abuse crisis, has been given a role of honor in the mourning for Pope John Paul II.

The Vatican announced Thursday he will lead one of the daily Masses celebrated in the pope's memory during the nine-day period that follows the funeral, called Novemdiales. The service will be held Monday at St. Mary Major Basilica, where Law was appointed archpriest after leaving Boston.

Some Catholics in his former archdiocese immediately protested.

Suzanne Morse, spokeswoman for Voice of the Faithful, a Newton, Mass.-based reform group that emerged from the abuse scandal, said Law's visibility since the pope's death has been ``extremely painful'' both for abuse survivors and rank-and-file Catholics.

``It certainly shows and puts a spotlight on the lack of accountability in the Catholic Church, that the most visible bishop in the clergy sexual abuse crisis has been given these honorary opportunities,'' she said.

John King, 40, of Metheun, Mass., was a victim of the Rev. Ronald H. Paquin, a convicted rapist who was defrocked by the Vatican.

``It's a sad state of affairs,'' he said. ``They're just trying to make this go away, but I don't see how there's going to be any change now.''

David Clohessy, national director for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, called it ``terribly insensitive.''

``It rubs salt into the already deep wounds of victims and it allows the best-documented complicit bishop to exploit the pope's death for his own selfish purposes,'' Clohessy said.

Law did not respond to a phone message left at the basilica.

He stepped down as archbishop 11 months after a judge unsealed court records in January 2002 that showed he had allowed priests with confirmed histories of molesting children to continue working in parishes.

Among the records were letters Law had written to some of the predators expressing support and thanks for their service to the church.

Many Boston Catholics already were upset about the pope's decision to appoint him to the basilica. The post is ceremonial but highly visible; the church is one of four basilicas under direct Vatican jurisdiction.

``I don't know what right he has saying a Mass of any kind, never mind for the pope,'' said Alexa McPherson, 30, who settled a lawsuit against the archdiocese alleging she was molested by the Rev. Peter Kanchong at St. Margaret's church in Dorchester. ``He shouldn't even be there. He should be in Boston behind bars.''

Chester Gillis, an expert in Catholicism at Georgetown University, said celebrating a Mass during the mourning period is not only an honor, but a position of influence.

In their homilies, cardinals usually indicate what they think are the key issues for the church ahead. Observers scour the speeches for clues to how a cardinal will vote.

``This is an ability to express oneself to one's colleagues all at one time,'' Gillis said.

Mitchell Garabedian, a Boston attorney who has represented more than 200 people who sued the church over alleged sexual abuse by priests, said Law's resurfacing has brought a new round of pain to victims.

``It clearly is an insult and a slap in the face,'' he said. ``Apparently the Vatican has taken the position that the clergy sexual abuse scandal must be swept under the rug.''

Washington Cardinal Theodore McCarrick said he did not know why Law was chosen, but said it was likely because the basilica is one of the great churches of Rome.

``It would be a natural selection,'' McCarrick said. ``The choice was certainly not made for any reason except to honor St. Mary Major.''

Asked if it was a Vatican signal that Law should be forgiven, McCarrick said, ``I think we feel we are all Easter people ... We look at the light rather than the darkness.''

The fourth-largest U.S. diocese has been shaken not only by Law's resignation after 18 years, but also by settlements of more than $85 million with more than 550 victims.

Law's successor, Archbishop Sean O'Malley, has also had to oversee a series of painful parish closures as the archdiocese adjusts to a shortage of priests and drop in collections.

O'Malley, in Rome for the pope's funeral, declined to comment on Law.

``We're here to talk about the pope,'' he said. In Boston, Ronald Lacey, 35, was among those who said Law's resignation as archbishop was irrelevant to his role in memorializing the pope.

``I think it was right for him to leave the Archdiocese of Boston,'' said Lacey, who was attending midday Mass at a downtown chapel. ``But if he grieves the death of the Holy Father, I think that's right, too.''


TOPICS: Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bernardlaw; cardinal; johnpaul2; mccarrick; pedophiles; pope; sexabuse
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To: Stone Mountain
Yes, His Eminence Cardinal Law is doing an excellent job as Archpriest of the Basilica. In no way does he seek out honors. In fact, the night before the pope's funeral he turned down an invitation to join president Bush and the American delegation for dinner so as to be present in the Basilica. On that night he joined hundreds of Philippine migrant workers for Mass. Afterwards he was on his knees before the blessed sacrament until midnight. The Basilica is right next to Termini station - an area where the homeless and poor hang out. Each day many of them find their way to him to talk to him and receive alms. At least among the poor of Rome he is recognized as a good parish priest. It's time to let this man get on with what he was ordained for - being a pastor to his people. Perhaps the reason why he was asked to celebrate Mass was because people over here recogonize that he is doing that.
181 posted on 04/09/2005 7:34:55 AM PDT by pintus
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To: JohnnyZ
Now, if you believe the OT is literal and the earth is 5000 or so years old and the dino bones were put there to fool us, I can't argue with you 'cause you're a crackpot.

It seems pretty clear that according to the literal sense of Gen. 2-3, Adam and Eve were created as adults. If anyone had come along at the moment after their creation, and tried to discern how old the world was from their age, he'd have gone 30 years too far back, maybe. Preserving the fact that evolutionary theory, modern geology, etc., are probably correct, is there any reason we couldn't speculate, at least as a possibility, that the earth was also created as an "adult", analogously to the formation of the first man and woman?

182 posted on 04/09/2005 8:25:43 AM PDT by gbcdoj (In the world you shall have distress. But have confidence. I have overcome the world. ~ John 16:33)
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To: don-o

Cunning as serpents; innocent as doves.
Not throwing his lot in with the serpents seems to have been Cardinal Law’s failure.

In my time had have had some past dealings with Catholic bureaucracies, most notably an American-based, international catholic media apostolate. While one is given the impression that the good sister is in charge, she is only as informed of the day to day operations as her associates want her to be. The leader has the “vision”, sees the forest so to speak, but it’s the underlings who must tend to the trees. Sometimes we are only as good as those under us. Many, many priests who served under Cardinal Law betrayed him. And these priests had been raised and long participated in the entrenched corrupt bureaucracy of the Archdiocese of Boston. Note how New York, not Boston or even the mother-diocese of Baltimore has been the moral authority in America.

An aside: as a Nutmegger living below the Mason-Dixon, I’ve seen that the fervent faith of Catholics in the Bible Belt which is nothing like the inbred, Easter-Christmas Cultural Catholicism of the Northeast.

Incidentally, Law is not a native Irish son of Bean Town. Cardinal law was born in Mexico to the son of a US Army Colonel. Later he graduated from high school in the US Virgin Islands before attending Harvard. As a newly ordained priest he was assigned to the Diocese of Natchez-Jackson during the height of the Civil Rights era. In the 60’s he was appointed bishop of the still relatively new diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau.

All those who think Law’s banishment to Rome will change anything in the Archdiocese of Boston are mistaken. The one man who now thoroughly grasps what is “wrong”…who now see’s “face to face” the darkness that is in Archdiocese has been exiled to Rome. Those who want Cardinal Law excommunicated or retired are really saying they want to preserve the status quo in Boston. They want the homosexuality and pedophilia to continue.

Nothing will change Archbishop O’Malley because all of the players…all of the Chancellery officers, all the auxiliary bishops, and all of the high-ranking priests who have participated in or collaborated in the real cover-up are still in office. Perhaps more scary still, some of those Aux. Bishops formerly under Law have now been named bishops of other dioceses.

Remember, Boston has consistently voted the Kennedy’s and Kerry’s back into office every four years.
Again, I suggest massnews.com to get the whole story behind what is happening in Boston.


183 posted on 04/09/2005 8:48:49 AM PDT by statsgirl (!Viva El Papa!)
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To: Zionist Conspirator
you Catholics have a nasty habit of wanting to rip the "old testament" to shreds in the name of science and then having "child like faith" when it comes to the "new testament."

Pope Pius XII, Encyclical Letter Humani Generis
On Some False Opinions Threatening to Undermine the Foundations of Catholic Doctrine
12 August, 1950

22. To return, however, to the new opinions mentioned above, a number of things are proposed or suggested by some even against the divine authorship of Sacred Scripture. For some go so far as to pervert the sense of the Vatican Council's definition that God is the author of Holy Scripture, and they put forward again the opinion, already often condemned, which asserts that immunity from error extends only to those parts of the Bible that treat of God or of moral and religious matters. They even wrongly speak of a human sense of the Scriptures, beneath which a divine sense, which they say is the only infallible meaning, lies hidden. In interpreting Scripture, they will take no account of the analogy of faith and the Tradition of the Church. Thus they judge the doctrine of the Fathers and of the Teaching Church by the norm of Holy Scripture, interpreted by the purely human reason of exegetes, instead of explaining Holy Scripture according to the mind of the Church which Christ Our Lord has appointed guardian and interpreter of the whole deposit of divinely revealed truth.

23. Further, according to their fictitious opinions, the literal sense of Holy Scripture and its explanation, carefully worked out under the Church's vigilance by so many great exegetes, should yield now to a new exegesis, which they are pleased to call symbolic or spiritual. By means of this new exegesis of the Old Testament, which today in the Church is a sealed book, would finally be thrown open to all the faithful. By this method, they say, all difficulties vanish, difficulties which hinder only those who adhere to the literal meaning of the Scriptures.

24. Everyone sees how foreign all this is to the principles and norms of interpretation rightly fixed by our predecessors of happy memory, Leo XIII in his Encyclical "Providentissimus Deus," and Benedict XV in the Encyclical "Spiritus Paraclitus," as also by Ourselves in the Encyclical "Divino Afflante Spiritu."

38. Just as in the biological and anthropological sciences, so also in the historical sciences there are those who boldly transgress the limits and safeguards established by the Church. In a particular way must be deplored a certain too free interpretation of the historical books of the Old Testament. Those who favor this system, in order to defend their cause, wrongly refer to the Letter which was sent not long ago to the Archbishop of Paris by the Pontifical Commission on Biblical Studies.[13] This letter, in fact, clearly points out that the first eleven chapters of Genesis, although properly speaking not conforming to the historical method used by the best Greek and Latin writers or by competent authors of our time, do nevertheless pertain to history in a true sense, which however must be further studied and determined by exegetes; the same chapters, (the Letter points out), in simple and metaphorical language adapted to the mentality of a people but little cultured, both state the principal truths which are fundamental for our salvation, and also give a popular description of the origin of the human race and the chosen people. If, however, the ancient sacred writers have taken anything from popular narrations (and this may be conceded), it must never be forgotten that they did so with the help of divine inspiration, through which they were rendered immune from any error in selecting and evaluating those documents.

39. Therefore, whatever of the popular narrations have been inserted into the Sacred Scriptures must in no way be considered on a par with myths or other such things, which are more the product of an extravagant imagination than of that striving for truth and simplicity which in the Sacred Books, also of the Old Testament, is so apparent that our ancient sacred writers must be admitted to be clearly superior to the ancient profane writers.

184 posted on 04/09/2005 9:29:56 AM PDT by gbcdoj (In the world you shall have distress. But have confidence. I have overcome the world. ~ John 16:33)
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To: gbcdoj
is there any reason we couldn't speculate, at least as a possibility, that the earth was also created as an "adult",

God can pretty much do what He wants.

185 posted on 04/09/2005 10:17:19 AM PDT by JohnnyZ (“When you’re hungry, you eat; when you’re a frog, you leap; if you’re scared, get a dog.”)
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To: JohnnyZ

Agreed!


186 posted on 04/09/2005 10:22:05 AM PDT by gbcdoj (In the world you shall have distress. But have confidence. I have overcome the world. ~ John 16:33)
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To: gbcdoj
I appreciate your posting this, and I understand that the Catholic Church's official teaching prohibits limiting the inerrancy of Scripture (though it also rejects the Divine dictation of the Torah). Yet the Church's official position is ignored to the extent that it is no longer the Church's de facto position.

I notice that you posted this to me rather than to the Catholics who are defending evolution and the documentary hypothesis on this thread. How come Catholic inerrantists spend all their time trying to convince non-Catholics that the Catholic Church subscribes to Scriptural inerrancy instead of confronting the majority Catholic "errantists" who are causing this alleged "misperception" of the Church's position???

187 posted on 04/10/2005 7:42:16 AM PDT by Zionist Conspirator (Vayivra' 'Eloqim 'et Ha'Adam betzalmo, betzelem 'Eloqim bara' 'oto; zakhar uneqevah bara' 'otam.)
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To: pintus
In fact, the night before the pope's funeral he turned down an invitation to join president Bush and the American delegation for dinner

I can't believe Bush's people would have allowed this anyway - can you imagine what the media would say if they had dinner together?
188 posted on 04/11/2005 9:02:05 AM PDT by Stone Mountain
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To: Stone Mountain
Bush was happy to meet the Cardinal but he didn't stay for dinner as his pastoral duties with the poor were of more importance to him than dining with the rich and powerful. You may be interested to know that the Cardinal preached an excellent homily at the mass tonight which received sustained applause. It seems that the media are intent upon destroying this man who has already been punished enough. Leave him in peace to serve the poor and needy of Rome and go find some other target.
189 posted on 04/11/2005 2:40:57 PM PDT by pintus
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