| Cardinal Law resigns; amid mounting
pressure
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Rome
Appropriately enough, Cardinal Bernard Law’s final act
unfolded against the backdrop of a cold and gloomy Friday the 13th in Rome.
Pope John Paul II today accepted Law’s brief resignation letter, ending
months of speculation and capping a groundswell of demands for Law’s
ouster from a wide cross-section of priests and laity in Boston.
Law becomes the most senior Catholic official to resign as a
result of the sex abuse scandals that have rocked the Catholic church in the
United States since January. Its announcement followed a brief meeting between
Law and John Paul the morning of Dec. 13, which, as it turns out, was less a
moment of decision than a farewell.
“I am profoundly grateful to the Holy Father for having
accepted my resignation as Archbishop of Boston,” Law wrote in a
seven-sentence letter announcing the decision, which was issued in the Vatican
press office at noon Rome time.
“To all those who have suffered from my shortcomings and
mistakes I both apologize and from them beg forgiveness,” Law wrote.
“The particular circumstances of this time suggest a quiet departure.
Please keep me in your prayers.”
John Paul appointed Boston auxiliary Bishop Richard Gerard Lennon
as the apostolic administrator of the archdiocese. Sources told NCR that
the appointment of a permanent successor should happen quickly.
By the end, Law’s resignation had become
“inevitable,” according to a Vatican official Dec. 13. The gesture
ought to be seen as “an act of self-sacrifice,” the official told
NCR.
Law’s resignation was only as archbishop of Boston. He
remains a member of the college of cardinals and retains all the faculties of
an ordained cleric. The 71-year-old Law would be eligible to help elect the
next pope if a conclave occurs before he turns 80.
Law was expected to return to leave Rome for Boston over the
weekend. A Vatican official confirmed that he will appear before a
Massachusetts grand jury, in accord with a subpoena, on Dec. 17.
The Vatican offered no immediate word on what Law will do after
resignation. Under other circumstances Law might be expected to take a long
retreat, but it’s not clear if the various legal processes in which he
figures will make that possible.
Law became the first Roman Catholic cardinal to resign under fire
since Austria’s Hans Hermann Gröer in 1995, who stepped down amid
charges that he had sexually abused novice monks when he served as a
Benedictine abbot. The only other senior churchman in recent memory to resign
not for personal misconduct, but for failing to respond to the misconduct of
his priests, was Archbishop John Ward in the diocese of Cardiff in 2001.
Events unfolded quickly in Rome in the week leading up to the
resignation.
Sources here say Vatican officials were influenced, in part, by
the pressure that kept building in Boston among laity calling for his
resignation. Especially significant was a letter signed by nearly 60 priests of
the archdiocese calling for his resignation. Sources here said those events
were seen as indicative that the crisis had grown beyond Law’s
control.
Law left Boston unannounced, but was spotted on Sunday evening,
Dec. 8, at a Roman restaurant by NCR. His dining companion that evening,
American Bishop James Harvey, John Paul’s public secretary, informed
Vatican spokesperson Joaquin Navarro-Valls that the news was out, and Navarro
released a declaration the next morning confirming Law’s presence.
At the beginning of the week, Vatican sources indicated that
Law’s trip was motivated primarily by the need to discuss a possible
bankruptcy in the Boston archdiocese. Navarro confirmed Dec. 12 that Law met
with both Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, head of the Congregation for Bishops,
and Dario Castrillon Hoyos, head of the Congregation for Clergy.
Sources told NCR that while the Vatican would not expressly
prohibit a bankruptcy filing, since at some stage the archdiocese may run out
of options, but it harbors deep reservations about the prospect.
Those include:
- Impact on future donations to the church;
- Ripple effects for other dioceses, which may find loans more
expensive, contracts harder to negotiate, and insurance more difficult to
obtain;
- Interference in church affairs from the state, since a judge
would take up broad powers over church assets.
John L. Allen Jr. is the Rome correspondent for the
National Catholic Reporter. His e-mail address is
jallen@natcath.org.
National Catholic Reporter, posted December 13,
2002
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