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.