ROME
National Catholic Register

December 20, 2017

By Matthew E. Bunson

The cardinal, who played a major role in the promulgation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, will be remembered more for his role in the clergy sex-abuse scandal.

ROME — Cardinal Bernard Law, whose time as archbishop of Boston from 1984 to 2002 ended in the scandal and cataclysm of the clergy sex-abuse crisis, died in Rome in the early morning of Dec. 20, after a long period of declining health and a brief hospitalization for heart problems. He was 86.

During much of his time as shepherd of the Archdiocese of Boston, Cardinal Law was one of the most prominent Catholic leaders in the United States and an influential member of the College of Cardinals. That ended in 2002, however, as a result of the clergy sexual-abuse scandal, and controversy followed him even…