VATICAN CITY
Fort Wayne Journal Gazette
By Alan Cooperman
Washington Post
VATICAN CITY – Cardinal Bernard Law presided over a Mass in mourning for Pope John Paul II on Monday, a few hours after Italian police broke up a peaceful demonstration by two American victims of sex abuse who were protesting the Vatican’s choice of Law for the honor.
Barbara Blaine of Chicago, president of the 5,000-member Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said she flew to Rome because of an “outpouring of outrage in the United States” after the announcement last week that Law would be the only American cardinal to lead one of nine special Masses for the late pope at St. Peter’s Basilica.
Law resigned as archbishop of Boston in 2002 after a judge unsealed court records showing that he and his subordinates had shuffled abusive priests from parish to parish without telling civil authorities or parishioners.
Vatican officials have said Law was chosen automatically for the Mass because he is head priest of a major church in Rome, the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.
Posted by kshaw at April 12, 2005 06:53 AM