NEW YORK: Cardinal Bernard Law, for years one of the most senior and influential Catholic prelates in the United States until he resigned in disgrace for covering up decades of sexual abuse, died on Wednesday. Law died on Wednesday after a long illness and had been hospitalised in Rome, the Vatican announced. Pope Francis paid his respects without mentioning the sex abuse scandal, saying: “I raise prayers for the repose of his soul.”But in Boston, Law’s death reopened old wounds and his successor Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley apologised to sexual abuse victims. The Spotlight reporters later discovered that the local Catholic hierarchy, led by Law, systematically covered up sexual abuse by some 90 priests over decades. “No words can convey the pain these survivors and their loved ones suffered,” said SNAP, the largest US advocacy group of survivors of institutional sexual abuse.

Source: New Strait Times December 20, 2017 17:37 UTC