VATICAN CITY
Daily Mail/Associated Press
December 20, 2017
By Michelle Ganney
– Cardinal Bernard Law, former archbishop of Boston, dies at age 86 in Rome
– He was highest-ranking official in history of US church to leave office in disgrace
– It was revealed Law failed to remove sexually abusive priests from the ministry
– His actions and silence led to a sense of betrayal among many Boston Catholics
– The abuse extended over six decades harming 789 children involving 237 priests
– After the scandal Pope John Paul II appointed him archpriest of the Patriarchal Basilica of St. Mary Major, which is when he moved to Rome
Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston, died at the age of 86 in Rome on Tuesday.
Law, whose failures to stop child molesters in the priesthood sparked what would become the worst crisis in American Catholicism, had been sick and was recently hospitalized in Rome.
The official who confirmed the death was not authorized to make the announcement and asked to remain anonymous. The Vatican is expected to make a statement on Wednesday.
Law, who moved to Rome two years after resigning from his position in Boston due to the scandal, was once widely recognized as one of the most important leaders in the U.S. church.
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