A Roman Catholic lay group with over 25,000 members has urged Archdiocese of Boston Cardinal Bernard Law to step down over his managing of paedophile priests.
The move marked a radical shift for Voice of the Faithful, a non-clergy reform group born out of the current scandal. For months it resisted asking Dr Law to resign. Only weeks ago it held its first meeting with the cardinal.
But its executive council voted overwhelmingly last night to join dozens of Cardinal Law's own priests in calling for his resignation, escalating a revolt in the archdiocese that began earlier this week.
The group's leaders said they were sickened by new revelations of adultery, paedophilia and drug use involving archdiocese clergy, and by more accusations that church leaders reassigned priests with records of sexual misconduct.
The group called on Pope John Paul II to appoint a replacement to Dr Law and asked the US Conference of Catholic Bishops to act on the situation in Boston.
Dr Law remains in Rome, where he arrived over the weekend. Church sources said the Vatican was considering naming a special administrator to run the Boston archdiocese if and when Dr Law resigns. He offered to resign in April during a similar visit to Rome, but the Vatican rejected the offer.
Earlier, the Rev Paul Shanley, an accused paedophile priest at the heart of the crisis, walked out of jail to jeers of "pervert" after a group of friends and relatives put up $300,000 bail to free him.
Lawyers for Rev Shanley's alleged victims also made public the files of more priests in the archdiocese accused of sexual misconduct.