2008 Woodie Awards
Americans protest role of Boston cardinal in Mass for John Paul
Patricia Montemurri ; Knight Ridder Newspapers
Issue date: 4/20/05 Section: News
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Barbara Blaine and Barbara Dorris, two leaders of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, tried to pass out leaflets to pilgrims in St. Peter's Square before Law addressed several hundred people during the Mass at St. Peter's Basilica.
A crush of reporters from around the world converged on the two women, preventing them from delivering many leaflets.
With cardinals no longer talking to the media and there being few other news developments, the reporters ensured that the women's cause got global attention. At one point, the media crowd became so large that Italian and Vatican police pushed it to a nearby piazza.
Blaine and Dorris said they entered St. Peter's Basilica as Law led the Mass, but didn't linger. There were no incidents during the Mass, which was attended by a crowd of pilgrims, priests and several dozen other cardinals, including Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia.
The survivors group's outrage was directed at Law, who resigned from the Archdiocese of Boston in December 2002 over his actions involving predatory priests, including repeatedly reassigning them from parish to parish. Blaine called his actions in the Boston archdiocese "criminal behavior."
Law never should have led Monday's Mass, and the other American cardinals should have interceded to stop him, Blaine said. "We don't believe it's an appropriate time ... to use the grieving in the Catholic Church to rehabilitate his image," Blaine said.
Dorris, the group's national victim-outreach coordinator, said Law's featured role in the Mass was "a way of intimidating victims into silence."
"It's a slap in the face to victims who worked to have him removed and now he's being honored in this way," she said.