文章基本信息

标题：SCANDAL CARDINAL SPEAKS
作者：CHRISTOPHER NOBLE
期刊名称：Sunday Mirror
印刷版ISSN：0956-8077
出版年度：2002
卷号：Jun 16, 2002
出版社：Mirror Group Newspapers Ltd.

SCANDAL CARDINAL SPEAKS

CHRISTOPHER NOBLE

BOSTON'S Cardinal Bernard Law, who leads the Roman Catholic archdiocese at the center of a global scandal over child sex abuse by priests, said this weekend that protecting children was his paramount concern and it would take time to move beyond the scandal.

"In one way, I hope we never get beyond this," he said in his first comments to the media since January, when the scandal erupted. "We have to be singular that the protection of children is first."

Seeking to rebuild confidence after being shaken by the child sex abuse scandal, the bishops agreed on Friday to bar pedophile priests from acting as clerics, but stopped short of automatically expelling them from the priesthood.

Law said he fully supported the new policy, which he said mirrors one put in place in Boston in January.

Law has faced loud calls that he resign over his handling of the scandal, which began when church documents revealed that he and five Boston bishops reassigned priests accused of sexual abuse without warning parishioners.