Cardinal Bernard Law dies aged 86 in Rome

November 4, 1931: Bernard Law is born in Torreon, Mexico; the only child of a U.S. Air Force colonel and a mother who converted to Roman Catholicism from Presbyterianism.

1953: Law graduates from Harvard University with a degree in medieval history.

1961: Law is ordained as a priest.

1968: Law takes a job at the ecumenical office of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

1973: Law is named bishop of the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau in Missouri.

January 1984: Law becomes archbishop of Boston.

1985: The Vatican elevates Law to cardinal.

1998: Law travels to Cuba to support Catholics in the communist island nation.

1999: Law leads a delegation of Catholic and Jewish leaders to Israel.

January 2002: The Roman Catholic clergy sex abuse scandal explodes when defrocked priest John Geoghan is accused of molesting 130 children; documents show Law and other church officials knew of the alleged abuse, yet gave Geoghan new parish assignments.

December 13, 2002: Law resigns as archbishop; an earlier attempt to resign was rejected by Pope John Paul II.

2003: A report by the Massachusetts attorney general says more than 1,000 children may have been molested by more than 250 priests and church workers from 1940 to 2000.

February 2003: Law moves into a convent in Clinton, Maryland, owned by the Sisters of Mercy of Alma, a conservative order of nuns based in Michigan.

July 1, 2003: Pope John Paul II names Bishop Sean O’Malley as the new archbishop of Boston.

May 27, 2004: The Vatican names Law archpriest of St. Mary Major Basilica in Rome.

April 11, 2005: Despite being disgraced, Law leads a Mass for thousands at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome to mourn the death of Pope John Paul II.

November 21, 2011: Law retires as an archpriest in Rome.

December 20, 2017: Law dies at age 86 in Rome. 



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