Sin a Cardinal Deposed

by Michael P. Murphy

In 2002, setting aside long-standing deference to the church, a court ordered Cardinal Bernard F. Law, Archbishop of Boston, deposed in two civil suits. This allowed attorneys to question him under oath about his supervision of priests accused of child molestation. They confronted him with thousands of pages of internal church documents going back forty years, among them letters from victims and their families pleading for help that came too little or not at all. But the Cardinal came prepared. Refusing to wilt under relentless questioning, Law resisted accepting culpability for the years of abuse by priests under his charge, insisting he "didn t remember" or "can t undo the past." However, this line of defense, striking some as more expected from a politician or corporate executive than an archbishop, revealed far more than the Cardinal surely intended. Certainly it did to the public. Within months, Law resigned as Boston s Archbishop, surrendering his position as the undisputed leader of the American Catholic Church. The archdiocese he left behind would pay out a hundred million dollars as compensation to victims and their families. For a "prince of the church," it was a Shakespearean-like fall from grace a brilliant and charismatic leader betrayed by the age-old pitfalls of power.

46 pages, Paperback

First published October 30, 2005