ROME
Inquisitr
December 20, 2017
By Lorenzo Tanos
Law, who earned controversy in 2002 for his alleged mishandling of sexual abuse allegations against Boston-area priests, died in Rome on Wednesday at the age of 86.
Cardinal Bernard Law, the former archbishop of Boston who allegedly turned a blind eye to decades of child molestation accusations against his archdiocese’s priests, died early Wednesday morning in Rome. He was 86.
As of this writing, Cardinal Bernard Law’s cause of death has yet to be announced, but a report from the Associated Press indicated that the disgraced former archbishop was recently hospitalized, and had been feeling sick in the time leading up to his death. According to the Guardian, Pope Francis has yet to comment on Law’s passing, but will likely be sending an official telegram of condolence on Wednesday, and celebrating his funeral mass, as is the tradition with Rome-based cardinals.
Born in Torreon, Mexico on November 4, 1931, Bernard Francis Law graduated from Harvard University in 1953, and was ordained as a priest in 1961. As a young priest, Law was active in the fight for civil rights in the 1960s, before he spent some time with the national bishops’ conference. Following a stint as bishop of the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau in Missouri, Law was named archbishop of Boston in 1984, and was known for making public comments against government officials who favored abortion rights. Per the Guardian, he was also “beloved” by Pope John Paul II, who served as the head of the Catholic Church until his death in 2005.
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