Cardinal Law breaks silence
CARDINAL BERNARD Law, the retired Archbishop of Boston, has reflected on his 30 years as a bishop and the "very difficult transition" following his resignation last year amid the American clerical sex abuse scandal.
in an interview published in 77w Pilot, the Boston archdiocesan newspaper, the Cardinal said: "Obviously, it is a vety difficult transition to go from the kind of life and the kind of schedule that I had to something that is not pressured," he said.
"For 29 years as bishop I had that kind of schedule, so it does take a while to adjust. Thank God, I've managed to do that. I think, rather well."
Cardinal Law said he spent about six weeks in Rome for events surrounding Pope John Paul ll's 25th anniversary as pope, the installation of new cardinals and meetings of several Vatican congregations to which he still belongs.
"I am able to devote more time to that (congregation) work than I was able to do before," he said. "Hopefully, I will be able to continue to do that sort of thing."
Asked if he expected an assignment in the near future, Cardinal Law said, "I really don't live in expectation of anything except the coming of the Lord in the most surprising of ways."
Speaking about his resignation, he said: "I thought that what we had in place (to combat clergy sex abuse of minors) were things that needed to be in place, but I understood that really the confidence that people had in me as a leader had been eroded on this issue, and it's very important that there be that kind of confidence generally. And so I made that decision. I think it was the right decision."
He added: "I believe that it is very important when you leave to really leave, but I am convinced that generally the church has taken a massive step forward in addressing what has been a terrible problem."
Priest killed in Guatemala
CATHOLKS in Guatemala are in mourning following the killing of a popular parish priest.
Fr Jose Maria Ruiz Furlan, better known as Fr Chemita, was assassinated by unidentified aimed men on Sunday as he returned home after celebrating Mass in the Church of Santo Cura de Am in sector five of the capital. "We heard four shots and when we went outside to see what was going on we saw Fr Chernita lying bleeding on the ground," a passer-by told the daily newspaper Prensalibre.
According to some reports, Fr Chemita had spent almost all day at the Good Shepherd, in sector 18, celebrating baptisms and confirmations.
Half an hour after the news emerged, the Archbishop of Guatemala City, Cardinal Rodolfo Quezada Toruno, was on the scene of the murder. "We deplore and condemn the assassination of a representative of the Catholic Church," said the Cardinal.