Cardinal Law leads, and now others may follow

One of the reasons that the Vatican was reluctant to have Cardinal Bernard F. Law resign as archbishop of the Boston archdiocese -- and one of the reasons he was reluctant to do so -- was because of the precedent that action would set.
Events overcame that reluctance.
Disclosures made in the pursuit of lawsuits uncovered decades of abuse -- not only abuse by individual priests of children and young adults, but an abusive policy followed by the archdiocese.
Time after time, documents showed a hierarchy more concerned about the welfare of the perpetrators than of the victims. There were outrageous instances of abusive priests being put back into positions where they could abuse again. Parishioners were given no warning that their new priest had a history that made him a danger to their children.
Eventually, it became clear to even those who were in the highest state of denial that someone was going to have to take responsibility for the dysfunction within the Boston archdiocese. That someone was obvious: Cardinal Law.
Statement of hope
In a brief statement read to the press Monday, Cardinal Law said, "[I]t is my hope and it's my prayer that my resignation as archbishop might help the Archdiocese of Boston to experience healing, to experience reconciliation and to experience unity." He took no questions.
But questions remain. What act of contrition is the diocese willing to make toward its victims? Declaring bankruptcy makes perfect business sense. The archdiocese cannot continue to function for the benefit of its 2 million Catholics if it is without resources. But what does it say about the willingness of the diocese to recognize its obligations and to make amends to those who have been injured?
These are questions that fall to the new leadership of the Boston archdiocese.
The church in Rome must now decide what it intends to do in other dioceses and archdioceses where leaders failed to respond in cases of abuse. This is not just an issue for the church in the United States. There are at least two other cardinals, in Ireland and England, who are under scrutiny for mishandling abuse cases.
The church can ill afford to have its leadership decimated in the wake of this scandal. But it absolutely cannot afford to allow cardinals and bishops who gave administrative issues priority over moral issues to remain in positions of power. To do so would be to compound the errors of the past.