After Cardinal, Others in Focus

The end of Cardinal Bernard Law’s tenure as archbishop of Boston will shift pressure to a second tier of bishops who until now have received less attention because of the intense focus on Law’s failures, church observers said Friday.

Indeed, even as Boston parishioners absorbed the news of Law’s departure, leading reform figures were calling for additional departures in the scandal over sexually abusive priests.

“I think doubtless other resignations will be appropriate to get a clean slate,” Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating told reporters. Keating heads the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ review panel on sexual abuse.

And the leading group that advocates for sexual abuse victims issued a list of likely targets.

Cardinals Roger Mahony of Los Angeles and Edward Egan of New York and five bishops who once served as auxiliary bishops in Boston made up the list released by Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests.

The five former Boston bishops, all of whom now head their own dioceses, are Thomas V. Daily of Brooklyn, N.Y.; William F. Murphy of Rockville Center, N.Y.; Robert J. Banks of Green Bay, Wis.; Alfred C. Hughes of New Orleans; and John B. McCormack of Manchester, N.H. Each has been linked to some of the Boston-area cases in which priests accused of sexual abuse were shifted from parish to parish without authorities or lay Catholics being told.

Mahony and other California bishops may find themselves in the cross hairs because of a new state law that takes effect Jan. 1. It waives the statute of limitations for one year to allow victims of older sexual abuse cases to sue the church or other institutions in civil court during 2003.

These court filings could reveal disturbing details of how California bishops handled past cases of sexual abuse. Sordid revelations contained in court filings released last week in Boston helped to bring down Law after a year of controversy.

“Through litigation comes documents and through documents comes the real pressures,” said David Clohessy, national director of SNAP, the victims’ advocacy group.

Mahony has said he will challenge the new law in court.

In a statement Friday, Mahony sought to distance himself from circumstances in Boston. “For more than 17 years it has been the policy of this archdiocese to deal swiftly and effectively with every allegation of sexual abuse,” Mahony said.

“We believe we have been effective. No priest or employee of the archdiocese who was ever determined to have abused a minor is allowed to serve in ministry in this archdiocese.”

That is the case now. But, in fact, until earlier this year, some priests who had sexually abused minors served in various ministries, although not with children.

Only last month, Law appeared to be regaining his balance. During the Washington meeting of the bishops panel, he spoke in favor of a “zero tolerance” policy to remove priests and deacons who had ever sexually abused a minor.

At the time, some saw Law’s emerging visibility as a sign of his rehabilitation. It now appears it was part of an exit strategy to allow him to resign gracefully.

As debate about Law’s future continued over the summer, Vatican officials were worried that a resignation could set off a cascade of others, according to church insiders.

“I think the Vatican is terrified of a domino effect, and I also think they are probably still so out of it that they think his resignation will solve the problems, quiet down the survivors and others and allow life to get back to normal, but it will never happen,” said Father Thomas P. Doyle, a chaplain in Germany who co-wrote a report to U.S. bishops in 1985 warning of an impending sexual abuse crisis.

Some of the circumstances leading to Law’s resignation are unique to Boston, particularly the unrelenting nature of the last year of scrutiny by prosecutors, the media and abuse victims.

Father Richard McBrien, a professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame, said a domino effect was not inevitable. “The basic reason why Law resigned is that it was at the end of a lot of developments.” But still, “what’s happening in Boston represents a sea change.”

The church has been dominated by a “feudal understanding” of the bishop’s office, said Father Thomas Rausch, theology department chairman at Loyola Marymount University.

Now, however, “the idea of an absolute, monarchial bishop that’s accountable only to the pope I don’t think makes a whole lot of sense,” Rausch said.

One of the chief effects of the yearlong scandal has been to spur lay Catholics to assert themselves, said Father Robert Silva, president of the National Federation of Priest Councils.

“The laity has to become adults in the church, and I think this might have helped some to realize that,” Silva said.

A lot depends on the staying power of the laity. Right now, they are energized. But “once Law goes, how many people will come out for meetings?” asked Father Thomas Reese, editor of the Jesuit magazine America.

“I’ve always said the problem with democracy in the church is that it takes up too many evenings,” Reese said.

But so far, advocacy groups for victims and lay organizations like the Voice of the Faithful continue to give every indication they will not cease their efforts.

“The sexual abuse of children by clergy, and the seemingly never-ending cover-ups of these horrific acts, is like an infection,” said Barbara Blaine, a Chicago social worker and a founder of SNAP. “It can’t be partially cleaned out. It must be fully removed and thoroughly cleaned before healing can begin.”