Fox News is reporting that Bernard Cardinal Law has offered his resignation to the Pope today. I'll try to find the link and then post it.
Here it is:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,72843,00.html
Edited by - Yerusalyim on 12 December 2002 18:3:54
VATICAN CITY Cardinal Bernard Law has offered to resign, Fox News has learned.
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Law has been widely criticized for several months for his role in the sexual abuse scandal plaguing the Roman Catholic Church in the U.S.
On Sunday, 58 Boston priests called for Law's resignation, and on Wednesday the influential reform group Voice of the Faithful demanded that he step down, citing a "spiritual and moral crisis" in the Boston Archdiocese.
Law could also be facing questions from a grand jury about his supervision of priests accused of sexually abusing children.
He and seven bishops who worked for him were subpoenaed last week to appear before a grand jury looking into possible criminal violations by church officials in their supervision of accused priests, a source familiar with the subpoenas confirmed Thursday.
State police from the office of Attorney General Thomas Reilly delivered Law's subpoena to his Boston residence Friday, the Boston Globe first reported.
The following day, Law flew to Rome, where he was still meeting with church leaders Thursday.
Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said Law was expected to meet with the pope on Friday, at which time Fox News has learned he will submit his resignation.
Reilly refused to comment when asked whether he had subpoenaed Law to appear before a grand jury. Law's attorney, J. Owen Todd, did not return telephone calls.
A state grand jury has been investigating for months accusations that archdiocese officials mishandled alleged molestation cases involving clergy, but so far has only demanded church records. Reilly and other prosecutors have acknowledged that they have yet to find grounds to bring criminal charges against Law or anyone else for the scandal that erupted a year ago.
Dozens of priests endorsed a letter this week calling for Law's resignation, and separately, the 300-member Boston Priests Forum may issue its own resolution urging Law's resignation at a meeting Friday.
The latest call for Law to step down came Wednesday from the influential Roman Catholic lay reform group Voice of the Faithful.
"There is a state of spiritual and moral crisis in the Archdiocese of Boston," said Jim Post, president of Voice of the Faithful, which claims a national membership of 25,000. "In my judgment, the Archdiocese of Boston has effectively been without a bishop."
Seventy-one Voice of the Faithful members representing parishes in the Boston Archdiocese voted Wednesday for the motion calling on Law to step down. Two were opposed, and two abstained.
This action by Voice of the Faithful, a group formed soon after scandal erupted in January, is significant because for months its leaders have resisted pressure from members to demand Law's resignation. Voice of the Faithful said it had hoped to work with Catholic officials for reform within the church. But members said they could not avoid a confrontation with the Boston hierarchy.
While Law was at the Vatican on Monday, a letter from 58 priests asking the cardinal to resign was delivered to his residence, and more priests have since endorsed the document.
There are 912 priests in the archdiocesan ranks, a third of them retired, plus 732 clergymen in the region belonging to religious orders.
If pastors who lead a significant number of Boston parishes join the revolt, it could be difficult for Law to govern the archdiocese effectively.
The scandal has engulfed Boston for almost a year and pressure on Law has only increased since the archdiocese was forced to release 11,000 church personnel documents to attorneys representing hundreds of alleged victims.
On Wednesday, lawyers released more files highlighting accusations of abuse in the archdiocese. In one case detailed in the files, a priest allegedly molested a boy on 21 consecutive nights during a cross-country trip in a Winnebago.
So far lawyers have released about 5,400 of the documents in piecemeal fashion. They contain allegations of misconduct against 65 priests and suggest that, in addition to molesting young boys, rogue clergy used drugs, abused young people -- boys and girls -- and, in one case, assaulted a housekeeper.
A 1999 Vatican document from the files shows that the pope decreed that one defrocked Catholic priest should not remain in the area where his actions were known, unless his bishop decided that his presence would not cause a scandal. The priest had a history of sexual abuse and concluded a year of treatment for child molestation when he came to Boston in 1982 from the diocese of Youngstown, Ohio, according to his personnel file.
The files released Wednesday also included a letter written by Law to the Washington, D.C.-based Military Diocese in 1996 saying a priest who had been accused of molesting a boy had nothing in his past to prevent him from working with children as an Air Force chaplain.
The archdiocese issued a statement Wednesday saying it had notified the diocese for military service about the unsubstantiated allegation against the priest. A call to the archdiocese seeking further details was not returned.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Edited by - Yerusalyim on 12 December 2002 18:6:9
Edited by - Yerusalyim on 12 December 2002 18:7:45