Priests May Seek Law’s Resignation

Dozens of priests from the Archdiocese of Boston discussed Friday whether to take the unprecedented step of calling for Cardinal Bernard Law’s resignation over his handling of clergy sexual abuse.

The talk capped a week that has seen more disclosures of sexual abuse by priests in the archdiocese, and of church leaders’ attempts to squelch potential scandal by shuttling clergymen accused of sexual misconduct from parish to parish.

The public anger over the revelations took on added intensity as the archdiocese threatened to declare bankruptcy as a way of dealing with the estimated 450 lawsuits it faces from alleged clergy sexual abuse victims.

Several individual priests have come forward in recent days urging Law to resign over his handling of accused pedophile priests. But so far, no group of priests has publicly asked the senior U.S. prelate to step down.

That may change in the coming weeks as rank-and-file clergymen, exasperated by the scandal and its effect on their communities, openly talk of defying their leaders.

“I think there’s a strong feeling among many priests, not just here, that we need new leadership in the diocese,” said Father Walter Cuenin, pastor of Our Lady Help of Christians Parish in the Boston suburb of Newton.

At least 35 priests gathered at Cuenin’s parish Friday to discuss the scandal and its effect on a diocesan fund-raising campaign. The gathering evolved into a discussion about Law’s future in the archdiocese, participants said.

“There was a lot of discussion about [Law’s future], but there’s no statement or consensus at this point,” Cuenin said. “That wasn’t the main issue of the meeting, actually. The main issue was about the campaign.”

The meeting, which was closed to the press, went ahead despite a warning from Law earlier in the week banning archdiocesan gatherings at Cuenin’s parish.

Cuenin argued that he and the other priests were not defying Law’s ban because the meeting was not an official archdiocesan gathering.

“This is a meeting among priests. We do whatever we want,” he said.

Cuenin said the priests decided to draft a statement, which they plan to send to Law in the coming days.

He and other participants declined to specify what the statement will say.

Stephen Pope, chair of the Theology Department at Boston College, said it would be unprecedented for a group of priests to call for Law’s resignation.

“That would signal open revolt,” Pope said.

Pope noted that several priests had publicly called for a leadership change at the archdiocese, but so far no group of priests has formally urged the cardinal to leave.

“It would be understandable if one or two priests did so, but it would be very interesting if a group did. Priests as a group are inherently conservative, to say the least,” he said.

Father Robert Bullock, who chairs the Boston Priests Forum, the largest group of priests in the archdiocese, would not rule out the possibility that his organization may soon call on Law to step down.

“If it is done, it will be done with great deliberation, prayer and involvement of the membership. It will not be done in a thoughtless, irresponsible way,” Bullock, pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Sharon, Mass., said.

“We here in the American Catholic Church are enduring the greatest crisis American Catholicism has ever known, and the Boston Archdiocese is at the epicenter of that crisis,” he said.

Law has not publicly commented on the new revelations since they were revealed this week. He was expected to take the pulpit at his weekly Mass on Sunday.