‘This Was a Terrible Human Being’ Says Mark Ruffalo
Former Boston Cardinal Bernard Law, disgraced for enabling and covering up child sex abuse of pedophile priests, died Monday night in Rome. The 2015 film “Spotlight,” which won two Oscars, is based on The Boston Globe’s investigation into the Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandal, including Cardinal Law’s role.
“Cardinal Bernard F. Law, whose 19-year tenure as head of the Archdiocese of Boston ended in his resignation after it was revealed he had failed to remove sexually abusive priests from the ministry, setting off a scandal that reached around the world, died Tuesday. He was 86,” The Boston Globe reports.
Cardinal Law was the highest-ranking official in the history of the US church to leave office in public disgrace. Although he had not broken any laws in the Commonwealth — clergy were not required to report child sex abuse until 2002 — his actions led to a sense of betrayal among many Boston Catholics that the church is still dealing with today.
The abuse scandal was “the greatest tragedy to befall children — ever†in the Commonwealth, the attorney general’s office said in 2003, and “as archbishop, and therefore chief executive of the archdiocese, Cardinal Bernard Law bears ultimate responsibility for the tragic treatment of children that occurred during his tenure. But by no means does he bear sole responsibility.â€
The attorney general’s office said the abuse extended over six decades and involved at least 237 priests and 789 children; of those, 48 priests and other archdiocesan employees were alleged to have abused children while Law was leader of the Boston archdiocese.
Here’s how Twitter responded to the news:
Mark Ruffalo, who starred in “Spotlight”:
Boston TV anchor:
Harvard Constitutuional law professor:
Others:
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