Bernard Francis Law | |
|---|---|
| Cardinal Archpriest emeritus of theBasilica di Santa Maria Maggiore Archbishop emeritus of Boston | |
 Law in the mid-1980s | |
| Archdiocese | Boston |
| Appointed | January 11, 1984 |
| Installed | March 23, 1984 |
| Term ended | December 13, 2002 |
| Predecessor | Humberto Sousa Cardinal Medeiros |
| Successor | Seán Patrick Cardinal O'Malley |
| Other post(s) | Cardinal-Priest of Santa Susanna |
| Previous post(s) |
|
| Orders | |
| Ordination | May 21, 1961 by Egidio Vagnozzi |
| Consecration | December 5, 1973 by Joseph Bernard Brunini,William Wakefield Baum, andJoseph Bernardin |
| Created cardinal | May 25, 1985 byJohn Paul II |
| Rank | Cardinal-Priest |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1931-11-04)November 4, 1931 |
| Died | December 20, 2017(2017-12-20) (aged 86) Rome,Italy |
| Nationality | American |
| Denomination | Catholic Church |
| Education | Harvard University |
| Motto | To live is Christ |
| Styles of Bernard Francis Law | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Reference style | His Eminence |
| Spoken style | Your Eminence |
| Informal style | Cardinal |
| See | Boston (Emeritus) |
Ordination history of Bernard Francis Law | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Bernard Francis Cardinal Law (November 4, 1931 – December 20, 2017) was a senior-rankingprelate of theCatholic Church, known largely for covering up the serial rape of children by Catholic priests. He served asArchbishop of Boston,archpriest of theBasilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, andCardinal Priest ofSanta Susanna, which was the American parish inRome until 2017, when the American community was relocated toSan Patrizio.
Law wasArchbishop of Boston from 1984 until his resignation on December 13, 2002, after his involvement in theArchdiocese of Boston sex abuse scandal became public knowledge. Law was proven to have ignored or concealed the molestation of many underage children;[1][2] Church documents demonstrate that he had extensive knowledge of widespread child sexual abuse committed by dozens ofCatholic priests in hisarchdiocese over almost two decades; he failed to report these crimes to the authorities, instead merelytransferring the accused priests between parishes.[3] One priest in Law's archdiocese,John Geoghan,raped ormolested more than 130 children in six different parishes in a career of 30 years.[3] Law was widely denounced for his handling of the sexual abuse cases, and outside the church his public image was destroyed in the aftermath of the scandal.
Two years after Law resigned from his position in Boston, which BishopWilliam Skylstad called "an important step in the healing process",[4]Pope John Paul II appointed himArchpriest of theBasilica di Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome in 2004. He resigned the position upon reaching age 80 in November 2011, and died in Rome on December 20, 2017 at age 86.
Law was born inTorreón,Coahuila,Mexico, on November 4, 1931,[5] the only child of Bernard Aloysius Law (1890–1955)[6][7] and Helen A. Law (née Stubblefield; 1911–1991).[8][9] His father was a United States Air Force colonel and a veteran pilot ofWorld War I.[7]
Law grew up on military bases in the United States and Latin America.[9] He attended schools inNew York;Florida;Georgia;Barranquilla, Colombia; and graduated fromCharlotte Amalie High School inSaint Thomas,U.S. Virgin Islands.[10] While in high school, he was employed byThe Virgin Islands Daily News.[11] He graduated fromHarvard College with a major in medieval history before studying philosophy atSaint Joseph Seminary College inSt. Benedict, Louisiana, from 1953 to 1955, and theology at thePontifical College Josephinum inWorthington, Ohio, from 1955 to 1961.[11]
On May 21, 1961, Law wasordained apriest for theDiocese of Natchez-Jackson inMississippi.[10] He served two years as an assistant pastor of St. Paul's Catholic Church inVicksburg, Mississippi, where he was the editor ofThe Mississippi Register, the diocesan newspaper.[5] 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.[11]
The young Fr. Law was acivil rights activist.[12][13]
He was a member of the Mississippi Leadership Conference and Mississippi Human Relations Council.[13] For his civil rights activities and his strong positions on civil rights in theMississippi Register, of which he was editor, he received death threats.[13]Charles Evers, activist and brother of murdered civil rights activistMedgar Evers, praised Law and said he acted "not for the Negro, but for justice and what is right."[14]
Law's brave civil rights activity led him to develop ties with Protestant church leaders and he received national attention for his work for ecumenism,[10] and in 1968 he was tapped for his first national post, as executive director of the US Bishops'Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs.[9]
Pope Paul VI named Law bishop of theDiocese of Springfield–Cape Girardeau inMissouri on October 22, 1973, and he was consecrated on December 5 of that year.[15] Law's predecessor in Springfield–Cape Girardeau wasWilliam Wakefield Baum, another future cardinal.[11]
In 1975, he arranged for the resettlement in his diocese of 166 Vietnamese refugees who arrived in the United States, and were members of a Vietnamesereligious congregation, theCongregation of the Mother Co-Redemptrix.[5]
In continuing his ecumenical work, Law formed the Missouri Christian Leadership Conference.[16] He was made a member of theVatican's Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity and served from 1976 to 1981 as a consultor to its Commission for Religious Relations with theJews.[5] In the late 1970s, Law would also chair the U.S. bishops' Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs.[16]
In 1981, Law was named the Vatican delegate to develop and oversee a program instituted by theCongregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in whichU.S. Episcopal priests would be accepted into the Catholic priesthood.[17] In the program's first year, sixty-four Episcopal priests applied for acceptance.[17] This brought married priests with their families into U.S. Roman Catholic dioceses for the first time.[16]
On January 11, 1984, Law was appointed Archbishop of Boston by Pope John Paul II[18] and was installed on March 23, 1984.[15]
That same year, Law reassigned a local priest, FrJohn Geoghan, to St. Julia's in Weston, on the recommendation of medical professionals. Geoghan had previously been known to abuse children, and at least one auxiliary bishop in Boston warned Law that the priest was unfit to return to parish ministry.[3]
On May 25, 1985, Law was created cardinal, andSanta Susanna was assigned as histitular church.[19][20]
In 1985, delivering one of the few speeches in Latin at the Synod of Bishops, he called for the creation of a "universal catechism" to guard against dissent, especially by theologians. He was the second prelate to call for such a document,[21] which became theCatechism of the Catholic Church (1992). Law oversaw the first draft of its English translation.[22]
In the mid-1980s, Law chaired the bishops' Committee on Pastoral Research and Practices at the time it distributed areport on Freemasonry.[11] 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".[5]
In 1989, Geoghan was once again removed from ministry due to continued child sex abuse, but was later allowed to return to St Julia's. Further incidents resulted in his permanent removal in 1993, and hisdefrocking in 1998.[3]
In January 2001, Law was named a defendant in several high-profile cases involving pedophile priests, including one involving Geoghan.[23] Reporter Kristen Lombardi, who was assigned to investigate by Susan Ryan-Vollmar, the editor of theBoston Phoenix weekly,[24] wrote "Cardinal sin", an article about the cases.[5]
Mark Keane, a victim of Geoghan, believed that Law had direct knowledge that Geoghan, who worked in the Archdiocese of Boston from 1962 to 1993, was repeatedly molesting children.[24] Keane said that the archbishop not only allowed the priest to continue working, but repeatedly moved him from parish to parish where he had daily contact with many children (one of whom was Keane).[5]
Even though abuse by Geoghan had been reported repeatedly in the media since 1996, the new editor of the dailyBoston Globe newspaperMartin Baron set theSpotlight investigatory team to work on the case in September 2001.[11] Lombardi acknowledged that theGlobe may have had the story before she did, but was delayed somewhat pending the release of sealed records.[25]
In April 2002, following theBoston Globe's public exposure of the cover up by Cardinal Law (and his predecessor CardinalHumberto Medeiros) of offending priests in the Boston Archdiocese, Law consulted withPope John Paul II and other Vatican officials and said he was committed to staying on as archbishop and addressing the scandal: "It is my intent to address at length the record of the Archdiocese's handling of these cases by reviewing the past in as systematic and comprehensive way as possible, so that legitimate questions which have been raised might be answered."[26]
Even so, Law submitted his resignation as Archbishop of Boston to theVatican, whichPope John Paul II accepted on December 13, 2002.[25] Law wrote in a personal declaration, "The particular circumstances of this time suggest a quiet departure. Please keep me in your prayers."[27] and moved to Rome. In July 2003,Seán O'Malley,OFMCap was named the new Archbishop of Boston.[28]
TheBoston Globe said in aneditorial the day after Law's resignation was accepted that "Law had become the central figure in a scandal of criminal abuse, denial, payoff, and coverup that resonates around the world".[25] A letter urging Law's resignation had been signed by 58 priests, mostly diocesan priests who had sworn obedience to Law as their direct superior; the editorial said that this letter was "surely one of the precipitating events in his departure".[29] TheGlobe's exposé of the scandal was the subject of anOscar-winning film,Spotlight released in the United States in November 2015, in which Law was portrayed byLen Cariou.[24]
In a statement, Cardinal Law said, "It is my fervent prayer that [my resignation] may help the Archdiocese of Boston to experience the healing, reconciliation and unity which are so desperately needed. To all those who have suffered from my shortcomings and mistakes I both apologize and from them beg forgiveness."[30] While no longer Archbishop of Boston, Law remained a bishop and cardinal of the Catholic Church in good standing; as a cardinal, he participated in the2005 papal conclave.[24] By the time of the2013 papal conclave, he had become ineligible to vote as he was over the age of 80.[11]
Within weeks of his resignation, Law moved from Boston to Rome.[24] When the state attorney general issued his report entitledChild Sexual Abuse in the Archdiocese of Boston (July 23, 2003), he severely criticized Law, mentioning that "the Archdiocese has shown an institutional reluctance to adequately address the problem and, in fact, made choices that allowed the abuse to continue," but did not allege that Law had tried to evade investigation.[24] He said that Cardinal Law had not broken any laws, because the law requiring abuse to be reported was not expanded to include priests until 2002.[31]
Law was a member of the Congregations forthe Oriental Churches,the 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 thePontifical Council for the Family.[24][32] He held membership in all these congregations and of the council before resigning from the governance of the Archdiocese of Boston, and at that time was also a member of thePontifical Council for Culture.[33] He became even more influential in thoseVatican congregations and, being based in Rome, he could attend all their meetings, unlike cardinals based in other countries.[32]
In May 2004,Pope John Paul II appointed Law to a post inRome, asArchpriest of theBasilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, a largely ceremonial role.[34] Some saw this an attempt to shield Law from potential criminal prosecution as his new position conveyed citizenship in Vatican City.[35]
Law reached 80 on November 4, 2011, and lost the right to participate in apapal conclave as well as his memberships in offices of theRoman Curia.[24] He remained as archpriest of the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore until November 21, 2011, when ArchbishopSantos Abril y Castelló was appointed as the new archpriest.[32]
In Rome, Law was considered an active and important conservative voice within many of the Vatican offices in which he served. Robert Mickens, a longtime Vatican journalist, reported that Law believed he had been "badly done by", and that other cardinals saw him as a victim rather than a guilty party. Until his retirement, Mickens said, "He did not lose his influence. He was a member of more congregations than any other bishop ... Cardinals that are members of these offices can't always go to the meetings—they are not in Rome—but Bernie Law did and he goes everywhere and he keeps his head held high."[32]
It was "commonly believed that [Law would] live out his retirement in Rome" (when he reached 80 years of age).[36] After his retirement in 2011, Law continued to live in Vatican City, and regularly attended the annual July 4 Independence Day parties held by the United States Embassy to the Holy See.[32]
In March 2013, Law was living at theBasilica di Santa Maria Maggiore.[37] As of 2015[update], he was living in thePalazzo della Cancelleria.[38] He visited the United States for the last time in August 2015 for the funeral of CardinalWilliam Wakefield Baum in Washington, D.C.[39]
In May 2012, theNational Catholic Reporter andThe Tablet, a British Catholic weekly, reported that Law was "the person in Rome most forcefully supporting" Baltimore ArchbishopWilliam E. Lori's petition to investigate and discipline theLeadership Conference of Women Religious, a large group of American nuns.[40]
After a long illness, Law died in Rome on December 20, 2017, at the age of 86. He is buried in a chapel at the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.[5][39] His funeral rites, following the standard for a cardinal who dies in Rome, included Mass inSt. Peter's Basilica on December 21 at whichPope Francis said the final prayers.[41][42]Vatican TV did not livestream the Mass as it normally does.[43]
Upon his death, his successor as Archbishop of Boston, CardinalSeán O'Malley,OFMCap, said it was "unfortunate" that Law "had such a high-profile place in the life of the Church". He speculated that today Law would not receive the sort of Vatican appointments he enjoyed after leaving Boston "but unfortunately we're living with the consequences of that".[44]
The Guardian noted at the time that Law had become "a symbol of the Roman Catholic Church's systematic protection of paedophile priests" because of his refusal to stop sexual abuse in Boston.[45]
Law is portrayed byLen Cariou in the 2015 biographical dramaSpotlight.
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| Preceded by | Archpriest of the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore May 27, 2004 – November 21, 2011 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Archbishop of Boston 1984–2002 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Bishop of Springfield–Cape Girardeau 1973–1984 | Succeeded by |
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