Cardinal Law Asks for Forgiveness for Scandal

Cardinal Bernard Law, making his first public appearance since resigning as archbishop, offered another apology and asked for forgiveness Monday for his role in the clergy sex abuse scandal that rocked the Boston Archdiocese.

“As I said last Friday, it is my hope and it’s my prayer that my resignation as archbishop might help the Archdiocese of Boston to experience healing, to experience reconciliation and to experience unity,” Law told reporters at a brief news conference. He left without taking any questions.

Law, 71, said policies have been put in place in the last 11 months that he hoped would prevent future abuses by priests. Although he had hoped to remain head of the fourth-largest U.S. archdiocese, “it came to be ever more clear to me that the most effective way I might serve the church at this moment was to resign.”

Law expressed uncertainty about his future, and said he plans to take a brief vacation with fellow priests after Christmas and later retreat to a monastery. He said he would then live outside the archdiocese, which covers eastern Massachusetts, but did not say where.

Law had become the lightning rod for the criticism of alleged victims, parishioners and, eventually, fellow priests who did not approve of his handling of the scandal that ensnared dozens of priests and eventually spread to dioceses around the country.

The crisis erupted nearly a year ago after previously secret church documents revealed that Law had shuffled offending priests from parish to parish rather than removing them.

Law’s resignation came as thousands of additional documents were released in recent weeks. Among the most shocking concerned a priest trading cocaine for sex and another having sex with teenage girls studying to become nuns by telling them he was the “second coming of Christ.”