Funeral Mass for Cardinal Law
at St. Peter's Basilica
In his homily, Cardinal Sodano says
‘Even cardinals make mistakes’
by John L. Allen Jr.
Editor
Dec 21, 2017
ROME – Before an unusually small congregation of mourners, albeit one that featured U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Callista Gingrich and her husband, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a funeral Mass for Cardinal Bernard Law was celebrated behind the main altar in St. Peter’s Basilica on Thursday afternoon.
Pope Francis took part in the ritual, not celebrating the Mass but offering final prayers at the end, reading the prescribed prayers for the final commendation of the deceased to God and the final valediction.
The Vatican’s foreign minister, British Archbishop Richard Paul Gallagher, was also on hand for the funeral Mass.
The main celebrant for the liturgy was Italian Cardinal Angelo Sodano, acting in his capacity as the Dean of the College of Cardinals.
His role was controversial, given that like Law himself, Sodano has a checkered history when it comes to the child sexual abuse scandals within the Catholic Church.
[I don't know that Cardinal Sodano's questionable history in this respect has anything to do with why he officiated. He obviously did so as Dean of the College of Cardinals. At Mass, he receives the Body and Blood of Christ - are we to assume he has been receiving communion sacrilegiously at every Mass he has celebrated since his association with Father Maciel? That he never, at any point, realized his grievous error in this respect and failed to confess it and get absolution for it? Besides, the moment a priest celebrates the Eucharistic sacrifice properly, he acts in persona Christi, and nothing about his personal life can change that.]
For much of the late 20th century, Sodano was a patron of the late Mexican Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder of the Legion of Christ, whose pattern of sexual abuse and misconduct was eventually recognized by his own order following a Vatican investigation that Sodano had opposed.
In 2010, Sodano again stirred controversy when he suggested during an Easter homily that critics of Pope Benedict XVI’s handling of sexual abuse controversies were engaging in “petty gossip.”
[A gross misrepresentation by Allen of the incident, and blatantly unfair to Cardinal Sodano - for whom I hold no particular brief but that he deserves fairness - as I remarked at length at the time.]
In his homily on Thursday for the funeral Mass, Sodano appeared to allude to Law’s association with the abuse scandals in the United States, saying that cardinals too make mistakes and fail, and adding that’s why Catholics include a confession of sins at the beginning of every Mass.
One of the opening prayers for the Mass read: “O God, who chose your servant Cardinal Bernard Law from among your priests and endowed him with pontifical dignity in the apostolic priesthood, grant, we pray, that he may also be admitted to their company forever.”
Thursday’s Mass was not broadcast over any of the Vatican’s media services, as funeral Masses for deceased cardinals generally aren’t carried, and likewise Sodano’s homily was not distributed through Vatican media channels.
In general, the absence of tributes for Law in the usual venues in Rome has been striking. Often when a well-known cardinal dies, there will be admiring pieces on his life and legacy in Italian Catholic media, and comments from senior Church officials in television interviews.
This time around, however, there’s been little official acknowledgment of Law’s death beyond Thursday’s funeral Mass.
None of that, however, has stopped some critics from questioning the wisdom of staging the funeral Mass at St. Peter’s and involving the pope.
Father James Martin, a well-known commentator on Catholic affairs in the United States, tweeted out on Thursday that “there is no need always to follow the norm” and that “it is exceptionally painful for abuse victims to see this.”
[Of course, the sanctimonious Fr Martin would not miss out this chance to be quoted. What I remarked above about Cardinal Sodano and his presumed sins and sinfulness is equally valid for Cardinal Law.
As questionable as his actions in Boston may have been - and John Paul II's decision to name him Archpriest of the Basilica of Santa Maggiore (which is the #1 Marian shrine in the Catholic world) after he had resigned as Archbishop of Boston - why do Catholics like Martin assume that thereafter, the cardinal remained unrepentant and sinful- and therefore undeserving of a funeral Mass in t. Peter's Basilica which is where funeral Masses for deceased cardinals are held.
In general, the attitude from these sanctimonious types - not to mention the abuse victims themselves whose psychological and emotional damage may well last the rest of their lives - is that any priest or bishop who has been accused of sexual abuse or covering up for it is automatically condemned for life, that there is nothing he could ever do to redeem himself of his sin(s).
My personal proviso about Pope Francis naming Mons. Ricca to be the spiritual adviser at IOR and confirming him as general manager of the Vatican hotels, including Casa Santa Marta, is that Ricca must have assured the pope that he had put his former life as an active homosexual behind him, that he had confessed and been absolved (perhaps he confessed to the pope himself), and that he would henceforth live as a priest ought to live. In which case, having been named the IOR prelate by the pope comes down only to an egregious case of bad optics.
In Benedict XVI's historical letter to the Catholics of Ireland in 2010 on the sexual abuse issue, he devoted a section addressed "To priests and religious who have abused children" - he did not simply give up on them! - in which he says:
I urge you to examine your conscience, take responsibility for the sins you have committed, and humbly express your sorrow. Sincere repentance opens the door to God’s forgiveness and the grace of true amendment. By offering prayers and penances for those you have wronged, you should seek to atone personally for your actions.
Christ’s redeeming sacrifice has the power to forgive even the gravest of sins, and to bring forth good from even the most terrible evil. At the same time, God’s justice summons us to give an account of our actions and to conceal nothing. Openly acknowledge your guilt, submit yourselves to the demands of justice, but do not despair of God’s mercy.
It's hard to imagine that anyone who went through the difficult process of priestly formation in answer to a vocation he felt, and was subsequently ordained a priest, could ever forget that he can be back in God's grace through confession, penance and a sincere and concrete amendment of his life to renounce the sins and crimes he committed. Those who forget, or choose to ignore this, simply elect to stay with Satan and renounce God. I charitably choose to think that Cardinal Law, Cardinal Sodano and Mons Ricca - to go with the examples cited here - all did the right thing.]
Martin suggested instead that the funeral Mass should have been held at the Basilica of St. Mary Major, where Law was installed in 2004 as the archpriest following his resignation from the Archdiocese of Boston. [Assuming it had been held there, Martin would surely have found a reason to object. Anyway, why would it be any 'better' to have the funeral Mass celebrated in Santa Maria Maggiore than in St. Peter's? Besides, the SNAP types would simply say Law did not have a right to a funeral Mass at all!]