Embattled Cardinal expected to meet Pope

The most senior Roman Catholic prelate in the US was today expected to meet the Pope at the Vatican amid speculation that he will resign over a priest sex abuse scandal threatening to bankrupt his archdiocese.

Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston could also soon be facing questions from a grand jury investigating the priest sex abuse scandal.

Cardinal Law and seven bishops who once worked for him were last week subpoenaed to appear before a Massachusetts grand jury looking into possible criminal violations by church officials, a source familiar with the subpoenas said yesterday.

The cardinal, who has testified in depositions for civil suits, flew to Rome the day after receiving the subpoena. He remained at the Vatican yesterday amid speculation that he will resign or get approval to declare the embattled archdiocese bankrupt.

Only the Pope can decide whether to accept such a resignation. Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said Cardinal Law was expected to meet with Pope John Paul II today and any resignation would not come before then.

The cardinal raised the possibility of resigning when he met with the Pope in April, but came away determined to repair the damage to the Boston Archdiocese.

But lurid details contained in recently released church personnel files have angered priests and lay Catholics alike and spurred new demands for him to step down. Priests have noted a drop in church attendance and donations.

Cardinal Law has been battered by accusations that he allowed priests who were sexually abusing children to remain in parishes. The grand jury investigating the role of church officials in the scandal has been meeting for six months, but so far has only demanded church records.

US Attorney General Thomas Reilly answered questions about the subpoenas yesterday, though he did not say whether he issued them. And he cautioned that state law makes it virtually impossible to charge church officials with concealing clergy misdeeds or failing to protect children.

“There was a cover-up. There was an elaborate scheme,” Mr Reilly said. But “it is very difficult under the criminal laws of this state to hold a superior accountable for the acts of another”.

Mr Reilly has come under fire in recent weeks from Catholics who blame him for not indicting Cardinal Law or other senior church officials.

Some lawyers familiar with the investigation said prosecutors may be exploring whether church officials were accessories to crimes committed by priests, either before or after the fact. But prosecutors would have to show church officials shared the intent of abusing children.

The cardinal’s lawyer, J Owen Todd, said he does not believe his client is a target but simply a witness called to testify. And he said he is not worried about the accessory statute.

“I think they’ll find that what has taken place and has been disclosed and discussed at great length in the civil depositions does not constitute any crime in Massachusetts,” Mr Todd said.