BOSTON (MA)
The Conversation
December 21, 2017
By Mathew Schmalz
Associate Professor of Religion, College of the Holy Cross
Cardinal Bernard Law died on Wednesday, Dec. 20, in Rome. Law was Archbishop of Boston, a position of prestige in the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. He had wide political connections, including with the Bush family. He publicly denounced Catholic politicians who supported abortion rights.
But this power and influence came to an end when The Boston Globe revealed how Cardinal Law had concealed sexual abuse committed by priests.
When Law was forced to resign in 2002, it did not mark the end of Catholicism’s struggle with sexual abuse in its ranks. Although reforms in the United States have made it mandatory for priests to report instances of sexual abuse, much work remains to be done in the Catholic Church worldwide.
From my perspective as a Catholic scholar of religion, one of the challenges in tackling this issue is the hierarchy of the church itself.
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