BOSTON -- The former head of the Boston Archdiocese, forced to resign because of clergy sex abuse that took place under his watch, has been promoted to a job overseeing a church in Rome.

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Jack Harper Reports On Law

The Vatican press office released a statement Thursday morning announcing that Cardinal Bernard F. Law was chosen for a new job in the Holy City.

The Vatican statement said Pope John Paul II named Law archpriest of St. Mary Major Basilica in Rome, one of four churches under direct Vatican jurisdiction. Law will now be responsible for the financial management of that church, succeeding an 82-year-old Italian cardinal. It's said to be largely a ceremonial position reserved for retired prelates.

Sources say St. Mary's is one of the biggest churches in Rome.

Law, 72, resigned as archbishop of Boston on Dec. 13, 2002, over the clergy sex abuse crisis and his failure to protect children from sexually abusive priests. At that point, Boston had been the center of a national Catholic church sex abuse scandal that had raged for two years after it was revealed the church shuffled accused priests from parish to parish instead of removing them from ministry.

During that time, Law became the first Catholic cardinal forced to testify before a grand jury on the sex abuse crisis and was deposed several times by attorneys representing victims. During his depositions, Law repeatedly denied responsibility for the crisis, blaming poor recordkeeping and his subordinates for mishandling the situation.

"The policy was a policy of delegation," Law said during one deposition. "I trusted those who had the delegated authority to handle that matter in as appropriate way as possible."

Law was forced to resign, however, when thousands of court documents revealed more cases of clergy abuse, and when 58 priests signed a letter calling for him to step down. During the course of an investigation, Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly blasted the church's handling of the scandal.

"We looked at this and it became clear that there was an elaborate system not to report these crimes to law enforcement. This never should have gotten to this point. This is a leadership problem. They thought that it was more important to protect the church, and as a result of that, countless children were harmed. The church cared more about itself than the kids and that is wrong. There certainly was a cover-up," Reilly said.

When Law eventually did resign, he apologized for his failure to properly manage abusive clergy and asked for forgiveness.

After leaving Boston, Law went to live in a convent run by the Sisters of Mercy of Alma in Maryland, acting as chaplain and devoting his time to several Vatican committees. He was replaced by former Fall River, Mass., Bishop Sean P. O'Malley in July 2003. O'Malley ended up settling with more than 550 abuse victims for some $85 million. The archdiocese was forced to sell valuable chancery property to come up with the money for the settlements, and just this week announced it will have to close more than 65 churches.

The timing of Law's appointment, coming on the heels of local church closings, has angered some parishioners in the archdiocese.

"It's just the wrong move at the wrong time. Many victims were sexually molested because Bernard Cardinal Law improperly supervised priests, looked the wrong way, turned his back on victims, allowed priests to sexually abuse children. And so now what's the result? He is now in a prestigious position in Rome. Hopefully it's only a position of form and not substance. Hopefully he doesn't have to supervise priests who will come into contact with children," said victims' attorney Mitchell Garabedian.

O'Malley issued a statement Thursday saying he prays that God will bless Law in his new position.

In May of 2003, a newspaper survey showed that the majority of Catholics in the archdiocese thought Law should be prosecuted for failing to take action against sexually abusive priests.

Did Vatican Make Right Move?