Law to lead Mass today amid American protests

ROME – American victims of sexual abuse by priests said Sunday that the Vatican is “rubbing salt into our wounds” by honoring Cardinal Bernard Law, who was designated to celebrate a special Mass of mourning for Pope John Paul II today.

Leaders of a U.S. victims group flew from Chicago to Rome on Sunday to protest the high-profile role given to Law, who was forced to resign as archbishop of Boston in December 2002 after court records showed he knowingly had transferred sexual abusers from parish to parish without informing civil authorities or the public.

“It feels like Cardinal Law is exploiting the pope’s death for his own self-aggrandizing rehabilitation,” said David Clohessy,” executive director of the 5,000-member Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. “It is just rubbing salt into our wounds and the wounds of caring Catholics.”

The protesters have set up a clash of two worlds: the American planet of open demonstrations, sharp words and publicity-seeking and the Vatican sphere of discretion, indirection and, this week at least, enforced silence of its top leadership.

Members of the victims group plan to hand out leaflets explaining why Law is a controversial figure in the United States. Clohessy said they will not interrupt the Mass.

Cardinals from around the world are meeting daily in the run-up to electing a successor to Pope John Paul II. The vote will take place under strict secrecy in a conclave in the Sistine Chapel that is scheduled to begin next Monday. Although 117 cardinals under the age of 80 are eligible to vote, two are ill, bringing the expected number of electors to 115.

Saturday, nine days before the conclave, the cardinals decided – at the behest of Joseph Ratzinger of Germany, the dean of the College of Cardinals – to stop talking to the media.

With the cardinals muzzled, the public relations field has been left to the sex-abuse victims, who are outraged that Law is celebrating the high-profile Mass and giving one of nine eulogies that traditionally take place between the pope’s funeral and the conclave. Law is the only American named to give a eulogy.

Last week, other U.S. cardinals played down Law’s appearance, saying it was an automatic consequence of his position as archpriest of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, an honorary job that Pope John Paul II gave him when Law resigned as Boston’s archbishop.

Barbara Blaine, president of the victims group, said by telephone before boarding a flight to Rome that “this is just the wrong time to be putting Cardinal Law out there. He is the poster child for the sex-abuse scandal.”

The U.S. Conference of Bishops reported in February that 5,148 priests have been credibly accused since 1950 of sexually molesting 11,750 minors. More than 700 priests have been removed from ministry because of the scandal, which has cost the Roman Catholic Church about $1 billion in legal settlements and related fees.

In the view of some Vatican officials, the scandal has been exaggerated. Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras, who is widely mentioned as a candidate for pope, said in 2002 that the U.S. media’s treatment of the issue amounted to persecution of the church and reminded him “of the times of Diocletian and Nero and, more recently, Stalin and Hitler.”

Blaine said she does not know whether the Vatican is offering forgiveness to Law. “What we do know is that, No. 1, Cardinal Law should not be asked to have this honor. No. 2, when he was asked, he should have turned it down. And No. 3, the U.S. cardinals should have intervened and prevented this from happening,” she said.

Respecting their vow of silence, the U.S. cardinals declined to comment on the protest.