Purify Your Bride

Cardinal Law is seen as the bad guy in the sex abuse scandal. He is the only bishop to lose his job so far. When you look at the details of what he did or failed to do it is not hard to understand why. Still he did something that allowed the Boston Archdiocese to heal. He opened the files and made all the church’s misdeeds public. It cost him his job and his reputation. He probably knew it would. Still he did it. The benefits of this were reaped by Cardinal O’Malley. When he came into town all the dirty laundry had been aired. He could get on with the business of healing and moving on. From what I see he has done a great job. Still he owes much to the sacrifice his predecessor made. You look an an event like this one and you think that a real renewal is possible. Starting in Boston and spreading from there. If it happens then Cardinal O’Malley will get much credit. Still if the church is built on the sacrifice of the martyrs maybe Cardinal Law should get some credit. He could have saved his skin. There are enough examples of bishops focusing on that. They have all been successful in as much as they are still in their jobs. But in those diocese the scandal is still very crippling. There are still a bunch of unanswered questions, inconsistent statements, convenient memory lapses, etc.