Friday’s Boston Herald reported that the Pope was searching for a position at the Vatican for Cardinal Bernard Law. What the article also mentioned was that it would happen quickly, before the Cardinal’s scheduled deposition in early June — the idea, as the article noted, was that the Cardinal would be out of the country and thus beyond the reach of the court by the time the deposition occurred.
I’m struck by the irony of this and how little apparent notice it’s generated. Isn’t the pattern of managing hasty reassignments and transfers for priests to keep them a step ahead of the law and accountability just what’s gotten the Church into trouble?
That may sound snarky and snide. And I admit that to a degree it is. But not entirely or even mostly. It really is the same pattern — though obviously Law’s seeming lapses can’t be compared to those of the priests he reportedly covered for.
But the whole thing does make me wonder whether this crisis doesn’t point to some deeper issue about the way the Church views its relationship with the civil authority. It’s not that the clergy thinks it’s “above the law” — though that seems a reasonable accusation in some cases. It’s more that there seems to be a sense that it’s separate from this law, the secular law. Given the long and complicated history of the Catholic Church and the Church’s — and particularly the clergy’s — relationship to civil authority perhaps this is not that surprising.
