ROME
CNN

December 21, 2017

By Laura Smith-Spark and Delia Gallagher

Pope Francis is expected to give the final blessing at the funeral Thursday of Cardinal Bernard Law, the former Boston archbishop who resigned in disgrace during the Catholic Church’s sex-abuse scandal, prompting outrage from abuse survivors.

Francis’ role in the ceremony, which got underway Thursday afternoon, has fueled the controversy over the decision to grant Law a full cardinal’s funeral at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.

Law, who died early Wednesday in Rome following a long illness, became a symbol of the sex-abuse scandal after a Boston Globe investigation revealed that he and other bishops had covered up child abuse by priests in the Boston Archdiocese.

The story was made into a celebrated movie, “Spotlight,” and the scandal forced the Catholic Church to rethink the way it dealt with child abuse in the church.

It is protocol…