Encyclopedia
Bernard Francis Cardinal Law is a
Roman Catholic cardinal and is the archpriest of the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, Cardinal Priest of the Titulus S. Susannae and a member of the Roman Curia that governs the Universal Church. He resigned as
archbishop of the
U.S. city of
Boston on December 13, 2002, in response to the Roman Catholic Church sex abuse scandal.
Early life
Law was born in
Torreón on November 4, 1931 where his father, a career
Air Force officer, was then stationed at the United States Air Force base. He attended schools in
New York,
Florida,
Georgia, and
Barranquilla , and graduated from Charlotte Amalie High School in
St. Thomas,
Virgin Islands.
He graduated from
Harvard University in
Cambridge,
Massachusetts with a major in medieval history, before entering priesthood studies at St. Joseph Seminary in St. Benedict,
Louisiana, from 1953 to 1955, and the
Pontifical College Josephinum in
Worthington,
Ohio, from 1955 to 1961.
On May 21, 1961 Law was ordained a priest and worked as a priest of
Natchez-
Jackson Mississippi. He served two years as an assistant pastor, and was made the editor of the
Mississippi Register, the diocesan newspaper. He also held several other diocesan posts from 1963 to 1968, including director of the family life bureau and spiritual director of the minor seminary.
Civil Rights Activism
Law was a civil rights activist, and took part in some of the civil rights marches of the times. He was a member of the Mississippi Leadership Conference and Mississippi Human Relations Council. For his civil rights activities and his strong editorial positions on civil rights in the Mississippi Register, he received death threats.
Law received national attention for his work for ecumenism in the Deep South in the 1960s and in 1968 he was tapped for his first national post, as executive director of the U.S. bishops' Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs.
Bishop of Springfield-Cape Girardeau
Pope Paul VI named him bishop of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, Missouri on October 22, 1973 and he was ordained as a bishop on December 5, 1973. Law's predecessor in Springfield-Cape Girardeau was William Baum, another future cardinal.
In 1975, he made the news when, he arranged for the resettlement in his diocese of one hundred and sixty-six Vietnamese refugees who had arrived in the United States, and who were members of the Vietnamese religious order, the Congregation of the Mother Co-Redemptrix.
In continuing his ecumenical work, Law formed the Missouri Christian Leadership Conference. He was made a member of the Vatican's Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity and served from 1976 to 1981 as a consultor to its Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews. In the late 1970s, Law would also chair the U.S. bishops' Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs.
In 1981, Law was named the Vatican delegate to develop and oversee a program instituted by The Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in which U.S. Episcopalians would be accepted into the Catholic priesthood. In the program's first year sixty-four former Episcopalian priests applied for acceptance.
In this period Law was also a
pro-life activist and spoke out harshly against abortion. During the 1984 presidential race, when
Geraldine Ferraro, who was a Roman Catholic, was the Democratic vice presidential candidate, Law and then-
Archbishop John J. O'Connor of New York both denounced her support of abortion rights for women. Law called abortion "the critical issue of the moment."
Archbishop of Boston
On January 11, 1984, Cardinal Law was appointed Archbishop of Boston, prelate
bishop of the
Archdiocese of Boston by Pope John Paul II. He was installed as Archbishop on March 23, 1984.
Only a little over a year later on May 25, 1985, he was elevated in consistory as a member of the College of Cardinals where he was also appointed the Cardinal-priest of San Susanna.
It was his speech at the 1985 extraordinary Synod of Bishops marking the 20th anniversary of the end of the Second Vatican Council, that led to development of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church in which Law oversaw the first draft of the English translation.
In the mid-1980s, Law chaired the bishops' Committee on Pastoral Research and Practices at the time it distributed a major study report on
Freemasonry. The bishops' report concluded that "the principles and basic rituals of Masonry embody a naturalistic religion, active participation in which is incompatible with Christian faith and practice."
In 1989 and 1990 Law visited Cuba. He met with
Fidel Castro in 1990 and in January of 1998 he led a delegation of two hundred and forty Bostonians to Cuba during the papal visit there. In 2000 he was part of an inter-American delegation of bishops that met with Castro for more than four hours.
Law has also been an insistent advocate of peace in the Middle East, international justice, Catholic-Jewish relations and ecumenism to war and peace.
During his time as Archbishop he continued to be a constant advocate of the right to life of the unborn. However, in 1995, when John C. Salvi attacked two Boston abortion clinics, he urged a moratorium on clinic protests.
After his resignation as Archbishop of Boston on December 13, 2002, Pope John Paul II appointed Cardinal Law to several authoritative positions in
Rome and the
Vatican City. He is currently the archpriest of the
Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore,
Cardinal Priest of the
Titulus S. Susannae. He is also a member of the congregations of Oriental Churches, Clergy, Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments,
Evangelisation of Peoples, Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, Catholic Education, Bishops as well as the Pontifical Council for the Family. This is a large number of organisations for any cardinal to be involved in and is partly due to residing in Rome.
Sexual abuse scandal
Cardinal Law's reign as Archbishop of Boston began in popularity but quickly declined into turbulence towards the end of his term. Allegations of sexual misconduct by priests of the Archdiocese of Boston became widespread causing Roman Catholics in other
dioceses of the United States to investigate similar situations there. Cardinal Law's actions prompted public scrutiny of all members of the
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the steps they've taken in response to past and current allegations of sexual misconduct by priests. The events in the Archdiocese of Boston exploded into a national Roman Catholic Church sex abuse scandal.
Grassroots public advocacy groups like Voice of the Faithful hounded Cardinal Law after documents revealed his alleged role in covering up incidents of sexual misconduct of priests. For example, during Cardinal Law's tenure Paul Shanley and John Geoghan were moved from parish to parish within the diocese despite repeated allegations of molestation of children under the priest's care. Later, it was discovered that Father Shanley advocated the
North American Man-Boy Love Association.The defense he provided was "failure to keep proper records."
The cardinal said his practice was to seek the analysis of psychiatrists, clinicians, and therapists in residential treatment centers before deciding whether a priest accused of sexually abusing a child should be returned to the pulpit.
As a result of the widespread sex scandal, the Archdiocese of Boston lost millions of dollars in fines and settlements. Over fifty priests signed a letter declaring no confidence in Cardinal Law and asking him to resign - something that had never before happened in the history of the Church in America. As a result of the scandal, the Archdiocese was eventually forced to close sixty-five parishes.
Realizing that by staying on as the archbishop of Boston he would be ineffective in his office, Law submitted his resignation to the Vatican and Pope John Paul II accepted his resignation on December 13, 2002. In a statement Cardinal Law said, "To all those who have suffered from my shortcomings and mistakes I both apologize and from them beg forgiveness." He remained Cardinal, which is a separate appointment, and participated in the 2005 conclave.
Episcopal Succession
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