Disgraced US cardinal retires at 80

CARDINAL Bernard Law, who resigned in disgrace as Boston’s archbishop in 2002 after the priest sex abuse scandal exploded in the United States, has retired from his subsequent job as head of a major Roman basilica.

The Vatican said that Pope Benedict XVI had accepted the 80-year-old Law’s resignation as archpriest of St Mary Major basilica and had named Spanish Monsignor Santos Abril y Castello to replace him.

Law’s 2004 appointment as the archpriest of one of Rome’s most important basilicas had been harshly criticised by victims of priestly sex abuse, who charged that bishops who covered up for paedophile priests should be punished, not rewarded.

Law turned 80 earlier this month. While the Pope could have kept him on longer — the dean of the College of Cardinals will be 84 this week — Benedict decided to replace him.

The Vatican announcement made no mention of Law’s resignation, though, merely noting in a perfunctory, two-line statement that Benedict had named a new archpriest for the basilica.

Law became the first and so far only US bishop to resign for mishandling cases of priests who sexually abused children.

The abuse crisis erupted in Law’s Boston in 2002 after church records were made public showing that church officials had reports of priests molesting children, but had kept the complaints secret and shuffled some priests from parish to parish rather than remove them or report them to police.

Similar sexual abuse complaints were uncovered in dioceses across the country. To date, US dioceses have paid out $3 billion in settlements to victims.

Law was named in hundreds of lawsuits accusing him of failing to protect children from known child molesters.