BishopAccountability.org
	In Rome, Cardinal Law Opens Old Wounds By Abbott Koloff Daily Record [Rome] April 13, 2005 Barbara Blaine was sitting in the massive St. Peter's Basilica, close enough to see Cardinal Bernard Law at the altar but too far away to see his face. She had been standing outside in the rain before the Mass, handing out leaflets, telling people from all over the world about Law's role in the American church scandal. She told them how Law, when he was in charge of the Boston Archdiocese, sent abusive priests from one parish to another, essentially allowing them to sexually abuse more and more children until there were hundreds of victims. She said a lot of people in St. Peter's Square had never heard of Law. They knew only a little about the abuse scandal in the American Church. Some members of the Italian press asked Blaine why victims just didn't forgive Law, since he has apologized, and move on with their lives. She told them her protest was not about forgiveness. "It's about preventing more pain," Blaine, the founder of the national group Survivors of Those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, said in a telephone interview from Rome on Tuesday. Some people apparently did not get that concept. They did not understand why the sight of Law celebrating Mass on Monday in memory of Pope John Paul II was so upsetting to some of those abused by priests. Some people talked about Law as if he was a repentant sinner. He had been forgiven by Pope John Paul II, they said, and had apologized. They asked why he should be punished any further. "Cardinal Law, the repented sinner who has amended his life, and has been forgiven, like Christ's Prodigal Son, has every right to the same human dignity and freedoms of all," Joe Maher, head of a national group called Opus Bono Sacerdotii, which defends priests, wrote in an e-mail the other day. But Blaine's protest was not about punishment. It was about victims' pain. It was not about forgiveness. It was about some church officials choosing to honor a man responsible for so much pain. It wasn't about punishment. It was about inflicting even more pain on those abused by priests in places such as Boston and Mendham. It wasn't about Law's dignity. It was about Law's place in history and the dignity of thousands of abuse victims. Maybe some church officials just don't understand Law's legacy. Bishop Frank Rodimer of the Paterson Diocese was asked about the way he handled abusive priests. He apologized for letting one priest, James Hanley, a former Mendham pastor, continue working after learning that he abused children. But while the bishop acknowledged that he had not always done the right thing, he also said that at least things had not been worse. It wasn't like this was Boston, he said. Law was sort of a benchmark for doing the wrong thing, even among bishops. Other American church leaders moved abusive priests around, but published reports indicate that Law was the most prolific. Like some other church leaders, most were never punished in any way, Law was not accused of abusing anyone. His actions allowed abusers to continue abusing. He was their enabler. He seemed to place himself above the law. Some victims saw him receiving an honor this week and figured he is still above being held accountable. "This is symptomatic of a much larger problem, that there is no system of accountability," said Mark Serrano, a board member of SNAP, and a former Mendham resident who was abused by Hanley decades ago as a child. "It underscores that all bishops answer to the pope or the Vatican bureaucracy and won't be held accountable." Blaine, who lives in Chicago, said she was surrounded by reporters when she got to St. Peter's Square on Monday. She said one man told her he was sorry for the pain suffered by victims. Others said they didn't know much about America's church sex scandal. Some said they didn't understand the fuss being made over Cardinal Law. Once inside the basilica, she said she was overwhelmed by its beauty. She looked up and saw TV cameras and thought about the images being beamed around the world. She thought about what they seemed to symbolize. "I knew people all over the United States would see Cardinal Law in that position of honor," she said. Some church officials said they were simply following protocol. Law, after leaving Boston three years ago, was sent to Rome and put in charge of one of Rome's major basilicas. The leader of that basilica would typically celebrate Mass at a papal funeral. So, some church officials seemed to be saying, Law's honor was automatic. It wasn't personal. Cardinal Francis George of Chicago suggested this week in a television interview that the decision might have been made by someone who didn't understand Law's role in the abuse scandal. He went on to acknowledge that the choice of Law to celebrate Mass this week would appear to be insensitive to those abused by priests. He added that "sometimes the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing, in any bureaucracy." That excuse is a little too easy to make. To some victims of abuse, this seemed like another example of church leaders not taking them seriously. It seemed like another example of some church officials appearing to be more concerned about priests than victims. At the very least, some church officials in Rome seemed oblivious to victims. You could argue that some of them might not have known any better. You could argue that they might have been more ignorant than callous. But it's hard to imagine that they never heard of the American sex abuse scandal. It's hard to imagine that they never heard of Cardinal Law's prominent role in that scandal. If Law really is repentant, as some say, why didn't he simply step aside instead of accepting this week's honor? Does he understand his place in history? Does he understand the pain he helped to inflict? If not, then any apologies he ever made, and any forgiveness he ever received, would not seem to mean a whole lot.
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