Bernard Law

* In John Allen's article on Cardinal Bernard Law, "After the fall" (NCR, Jan. 25), he writes, "Catholics from cultures lacking Anglo-Saxon concepts of corporate liability, which includes Italy, sometimes struggle to understand why bishops should be held accountable for the misdeeds of their priests." Are Vatican leaders really that delusional?

Bernard Law did not lose his seat in Boston because of the misdeeds of his priests. He lost his seat because of his own misdeeds. He repeatedly covered up the crimes of his pedophile priests. He lied to the people of his archdiocese about his own work in moving those , predator priests from parish to parish. When The Boston Globe broke the story in 2002, he was caught in a lie on an almost daffy basis. Worse still, he repeatedly used the American legal system to bully and intimidate victims of sexual abuse into silence, thereby victimizing the victims again. Indeed, he even accused them of being responsible for the abuse. His call for God's wrath on his critics surpasses Richard Nixon's most deluded and paranoid claims of innocence and persecution.

Since fleeing to Rome, Cardinal Law has been showered with honors by his friends in the Vatican. No doubt he repaid them by voting the Roman Curia line in the conclave of 2005. That this man still holds positions of influence in Vatican congregations, including the Congregation for Bishops where he used his influence to promote those who aided him in his misdeeds in Boston, is a disgrace and a continued insult to the victims of sexual abuse.

STEVEN SHEA

Milwaukee

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