NEW YORK
Pioneer Press
BY ADAM LISBERG
New York Daily News
NEW YORK - (KRT) - The Boston cardinal who resigned in disgrace after ignoring priests who sexually abused children will lead a memorial Mass in Rome for Pope John Paul II - outraging some American Catholics.
"They still don't get it. They simply don't get it," said Melissa Gradel, a parishioner at St. Boniface in downtown Brooklyn. "It's a travesty and an embarrassment."
Cardinal Bernard Law, who came to symbolize a church hierarchy that protected priests instead of their young victims, resigned as Boston's archbishop in late 2002.
Later the pope picked him to head one of Rome's great basilicas, St. Mary Major, where he will lead the memorial Mass on Monday.
Thursday's announcement enraged groups like Voice of the Faithful and the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, which formed as disclosures of church sex scandals started in Boston and spread across the country. "There are obviously thousands of people who could have been chosen for this Mass," said David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network. "It just reopens some very, very deep wounds."
Posted by kshaw at April 8, 2005 04:28 AM