BOSTON: Following the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law, the Boston Roman Catholic archdiocese is no longer contemplating bankruptcy, church officials have told a lawyer for victims of clerical abuse.
In addition, a deposition of Cardinal Law by lawyers representing victims of sexual abuse by priests that was scheduled for tomorrow will be delayed for some weeks, because of the trauma the 71-year-old prelate has been through.
Mr Roderick MacLeish, an attorney for 200 alleged victims of abuse, said that the proposal to file for bankruptcy, approved by the cardinal two weeks ago, had enraged church officials around the country, as major donors were threatening to withhold contributions in case other dioceses followed suit.
Across the US, 325 priests have been removed from duty or resigned because of sexual abuse allegations, and several dioceses are facing huge compensation claims.
The idea of declaring the Boston archdiocese bankrupt was one of the factors that prompted 58 priests to call for Law's resignation in an unprecedented clerical revolt that reportedly sealed the cardinal's fate in Rome.
Cardinal Law returned to the US on Saturday aboard a Rome-Newark flight, during which he told a Boston Globe reporter, "I honestly do not know" what his role in the Catholic Church would now be.
"I need to turn my thoughts and prayers toward figuring that out," he said. "After all, I am still young." For now, "I will be praying and thinking and reflecting on what has happened."
Asked by the Globe if he held any negative feelings toward the media or the lay and clerical groups that played a role in his downfall, he replied, "I have no hatred in my heart for anybody. I mean that.
"I really think that what I have done is best for the church and I have to leave it at that. I think it is best that I return quietly."
The cardinal did not attend Sunday Mass at Boston's Cathedral of the Holy Cross, which was celebrated by Bishop Richard Lennon, an auxiliary Boston bishop appointed to run the archdiocese of two million Catholics until a successor to the archbishop is found.
Bishop Lennon pledged "to work toward healing as a church and furthering the mission of Jesus Christ within our community". The deposition of the cardinal scheduled for tomorrow will be delayed because of what the cardinal had been through, lawyers said. "We know his psychological state is probably not that great," said attorney Mr Jeffrey Newman.
"It's never been our intention to cause this man to be beaten. Given his request, we think it would be acceptable to delay for a couple of weeks."
The lawyers will also likely delay this week's scheduled deposition of New Hampshire Bishop John McCormack, a former bishop of the Boston archdiocese.
Despite the resignation of Cardinal Law, lawyers for abuse victims said their compensation cases and drive for more information from diocesan files would continue unabated.