Cardinal Law To Resume Testimony

Many months after the sex scandal in Boston burst into the headlines and sparked debate and outrage in the pews among the faithful, Cardinal Bernard Law remains on the job as leader of Boston's Catholics, solidly resisting calls for his resignation.

Wednesday, he'll be back in a legal setting, answering questions for a deposition by lawyers representing alleged sex abuse victims.

Tuesday, those attorneys said that newly released files document misconduct by another ten Boston-area priests, at the same time showing that the archdiocese of Boston systematically protected priests at the expense of abused children.

That announcement came on the same day that a committee of American bishops unveiled a draft proposal of a plan to combat sex abuse - a plan that is drawing mixed reviews and is to be voted on by Catholic bishops meeting in Dallas later this month.

The new files released by attorneys in Boston Tuesday - the latest in an avalanche of church documents made public since January - were released as a string of senior Church officials prepare to testify in two of the most closely watched cases.

The documents are likely to increase pressure for the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law, who has been sharply criticized for his handling of priests accused of pedophilia.

They will also focus attention on the role in the scandal of the church hierarchy ahead of a meeting of U.S. bishops next week that will be dominated by questions about how to handle sex abuse by priests.

Lawyers for alleged victims of Father Paul Shanley and other Boston-area priests are trying to prove the archdiocese ignored warnings about abusive priests for decades as it shuttled them from parish to parish.

"What these documents show is a repeat pattern of refusal to recognize specific information that children are at risk and protection of priests over the children themselves," said Jeffrey Newman, a lawyer for some of the alleged victims.

Newman and his colleague Roderick MacLeish said they will confront Law, the senior U.S. prelate, with many of the documents when they question him under oath on Wednesday.

The testimony of Law and the other officials is all linked to two cases: that of defrocked priest and convicted pedophile John Geoghan, whose trial triggered the scandal; and that of Shanley, accused of repeatedly raping a boy, sometimes in the church confessional.

The new documents include internal memos, notes and letters in which archdiocesan officials discuss allegations against priests, make suggestions about how to handle them and respond to queries from concerned parishioners.

One document, an account typed by someone identified as Monsignor Finnegan of a meeting between the late Father Joseph Birmingham and two boys who accused him of sexual impropriety, is dated Nov. 4, 1964.

Birmingham, who died in 1989, admitted to "a spontaneous gesture of grabbing him around the waist" but at first denied anything else, the document states. But the boys remained adamant, the document said.

"Fr. B's hands were inside my pants, inside my underwear," one boy is quoted as saying.

"Further talk with the boys' parents and Father Hurley indicated that this knowledge is widespread," the document reads. Parents (of at least 5) are aware of it. Boys won't go to altar boy meetings."

The document and others like it show the archdiocese was aware that some of its priests were pedophiles, but allowed them to continue working as priests, MacLeish said.

"They show that back in the 1960s, with many of these priests, there were reports of abuse that just weren't heeded and people were transferred not just once, not just twice, but on multiple occasions," MacLeish said.

Another document, notes by a Bishop John Mulcahy, details an allegation against Birmingham in another diocese in 1987.

The document contains a notation, attributed to Robert Banks, the current bishop of Green Bay, Wisconsin, that says Birmingham confessed and asked for a transfer.

Banks was questioned on Tuesday by Mitchell Garabedian, who represents 86 plaintiffs who are suing Geoghan. Banks was vicar of administration under Law before his appointment to lead the Green Bay diocese. He faces at least two more days of questioning in the case, Garabedian said.

Law, among the highest-ranking church officials ever deposed, testified in the Geoghan case last month.

Bishop Thomas Daily of New York, a former chancellor of the Boston archdiocese, and David Smith, the current chancellor, will be deposed next week.

Monday, Manchester, New Hampshire Bishop John McCormack, a former secretary for personnel matters in the Boston archdiocese, testified in the Shanley case.

According to an account in the Boston Herald, McCormack told lawyers he kept quiet about allegations of sexual abuse by clergy because he did not want to create a scandal.

"He said he didn't want to create 'a scandal,"' said Rodney Ford, whose son Greg is suing Law, McCormack, Shanley and the Catholic Church over the many rapes alleged to have taken place in the 1980s in a suburban Boston church.