Boston Cardinal Bernard Law was served a subpoena last Friday to appear before a Massachusetts grand jury investigating sex abuse by priests, sources familiar with the inquiry said today, and the cardinal apparently left the city the same day.
Grand jury subpoenas were also served last week on seven Catholic bishops with ties to the Archdiocese of Boston, the sources said. Cardinal Law had been served his subpoena on Friday and the Boston Globesaid that was the same day the cardinal left for Washington, where he departed on Saturday for Rome.
Cardinal Law, who arrived at the Vatican amid a simmering revolt among priests and parishioners in his archdiocese, was still in Rome and may meet with Pope John Paul II tomorrow, papal spokesman Mr Joaquin Navarro-Valls said. It is possible the cardinal may hand the Pope his resignation as he did in April, when the pontiff rejected it.
The senior US prelate has held talks with top Vatican officials all week about his future and plans for the archdiocese to declare bankruptcy as a way of dealing with some 450 clergy sexual abuse lawsuits.