BOSTON -- As the calls Tuesday for Cardinal Bernard Law's resignation increase in number and intensity, the bishop continues secret meetings in Rome with Vatican officials.

NewsCenter 5's Amalia Barreda said that there's no official word yet about the topic of those meetings, but late Tuesday, Law resigned from the Board of Trustees of the Catholic University of America, where he has served as chairman for 12 years.

Law had advised the board last October that the resignation was likely.

"I leave this position grateful for the opportunity I have had to work with so many wonderfully dedicated people," Law said in a letter delivered to the board Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the Vatican remained tight-lipped about Law's trip. Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls has revealed that Law himself asked for the meetings he is attending, meaning that the Vatican did not summon Boston's embattled archbishop to Rome.

Before the end of the week, Law may meet with Pope John Paul II about the scandal that is engulfing his once stellar career. The consensus is that Boston's archbishop is not going to get a sympathetic ear on resignation from the pope, who has ignored calls that he himself step down due to age and failing health.

"There are people who think (the pope's) too old and too feeble to carry on, and he's consistently said no to that. When you pick up a burden, you are obligated to carry it to the end. So, I think his personal inclination is to stay put and I think that's what he'd like to see Law do. The Vatican's institutional bias, too, is that when you've got somebody, especially a cardinal, who's created a mess like this, they'd like to see the guy clean it up. I mean that's always the expectation," National Catholic Reporter spokesman John Allen said.

Among the possible options is the appointment of a coadjutor bishop to help Law run the archdiocese. That, also, is not looked upon as a likely solution, Barreda said.

"The calculus would be that the appointment of a coadjutor would not satisfy those who are most aggressively calling for Law's resignation, and it would also be a prescription perhaps for more paralysis because you could create the possibility of conflict between Law and whoever else is put into Boston. And the last thing you need is to create more gridlock and more administrative confusion," Allen said.

It is not just Law who finds himself in a literal corner -- the church itself is obviously grappling with what to do, Barreda said.

"At what point does the chaos, the ungovernibility, in Boston become so enormous and so overwhelming that it in effect trumps these other considerations? I think that's what people in the Vatican are trying to get their hands around this week -- including John Paul himself," Allen said.