Cardinal Facing Third Day Of Questioning

BOSTON -- Cardinal Bernard Law is scheduled to sit down for his third day of deposition questioning in the child sex abuse lawsuit against former Boston archdiocese priest John Geoghan.

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Attorneys have been questioning Law about what he knew regarding the the Geoghan case. He was asked about the history of abuse allegations and financial matters at length last Thursday.

NewsCenter 5's Gail Huff reported that at his weekly Mass on Sunday, the cardinal did not bring up the ongoing pedophilia sex scandal rocking his archdiocese.

There were no direct references to the scandal or his questioning under oath.

Outside about 50 demonstrators gathered to protest Law's handling of the crisis.

"Maybe I wouldn't recall a piece of paper 16 years ago, but if I had heard that somebody I was managing had just raped a child, I would hope that would stay. The details of that event would be indelible in my memory," said Ann Barrett Doyle of the Coalition for Concerned Catholics.

Law is scheduled to testify once again in his residence in Brighton. It is unknown what he testified to on Friday because a judge agreed to a motion to block the release of Friday's transcript for up to 30 days.

The cardinal is also scheduled to be deposed in a separate case next month against retired priest Paul Shanley next month. Shanley is also accused of raping young boys while serving as a priest under Law.

"This other deposition that we're going to be taking is going to raise some very difficult questions for the cardinal. And he cannot say, at that deposition, 'I don't recall,' because he was so involved in [the] Paul Shanley [case]," said Roderick MacLeish, the attorney for alleged victims in that case.

Law is being deposed because he is accused of negligence for reassigning both Geoghan and Shanley to various parishes, despite documented evidence that the church and the cardinal knew both men had a history of alleged abuse against children.