Los Angeles | Monday
SEVERAL senior US clerics will urge the Vatican to force the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law from his post as archbishop of Boston, the Los Angeles Times reported on Monday.
Quoting off-the-record interviews with a US bishop and a cardinal, the Times reported that US bishops are virtually unanimous in believing that Law must leave his post because of the escalating sexual abuse scandal involving Roman Catholic clergy and children which first came to light in his diocese.
The cardinal who spoke to the Times told the newspaper that he had been ”commissioned” by other senior prelates to take their case against Law directly to Pope John Paul II’s inner circle, and said he and others would do so Monday during private meetings at the Vatican.
”If the Holy See wants to send a strong signal of quality and standards of leadership,” the cardinal said, Law ”will have to be replaced. This cannot be a phaseout.”
The bishop told the newspaper: ”Many bishops are of the mind that the healing process really can’t begin until there’s a change of leadership in Boston.”
The lobbying against Cardinal Law was to take place one day before talks were to commence between 13 US cardinals and Vatican leaders about the sex abuse scandal.
At Sunday mass at Boston’s Cathedral of the Holy Cross, Cardinal Law expressed regret for not having acted more aggressively over the years against priests in his diocese accused of paedophilia.
”I wish that I could turn the clock back and undo the harm and hurt that have been caused to children, to families and others,” said Law, who has come under sustained fire in the Church scandal for reassigning offending priests rather than defrocking them.
More than 400 complaints have been lodged against priests in Law’s archdiocese alone, and many in his flock have clamoured for him to step down, although he insists he has no intention of doing so.
”However challenging these days are for all of us, I firmly believe that God has given us an opportunity to make positive and significant changes for the future,” he said.
Sexual abuse ”is a very serious issue undermining the mission of the Church,” he declared. ”As long as I am in a position to do so, I will work tirelessly to address this crisis and to underscore its severity.”
Since the paedophilia scandal first erupted in Boston last January it has spread across the United States, with allegations being lodged at least 17 dioceses including Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland and West Palm Beach, Florida. – Sapa-AFP