Irish Catholics Call For Cardinal Law’s Resignation, Following Clergy Abuse Report

Published February 10, 2010

BOSTON — Ireland’s clergy sex abuse scandal erupted last year after two government-ordered reports documented decades of clergy child abuse and a church cover up of the abuse. Four Irish bishops said they’ll resign for not reporting the abuse. Some in Ireland say another Catholic leader should resign — former Boston Archbishop Cardinal Bernard Law.

“To keep Cardinal Bernard Law in the position he holds would suggest the papacy does not understand the principles of accountability,” said Sean O’Conaill, acting coordinator of Voice of the Faithful in Ireland.

O’Conaill said Pope Benedict XVI is expected to release a pastoral letter to Ireland’s four million Catholics after next week’s meeting with the bishops. But O’Connail said the letter is meaningless if Cardinal Law remains in his Vatican position helping to select new bishops.

Earlier Report: Abusive Priests With Ireland Ties Worked In Boston“Many people find it difficult to understand why if a person was found to be as wanting in his duties, care for children, as Cardinal Bernard Law was — and that was comparable to what happened in Dublin — we find it difficult to understand why such a man would have been promoted,” O’Connail said. “It seems to us to be symbolically strange that he would have that role at all. What Bernard Law did was endanger the lives and souls of children.”

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