Lawyers in America have promised renewed legal action against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese
of Boston after the church backed out of a multi-million-dollar settlement with alleged victims of a paedophile priest.
Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who negotiated the 15 million to 30 million-dollar settlement for 86 clients, said he would ask a judge tomorrow to approve the swift deposition of Cardinal Bernard Law, which was delayed when the settlement was agreed to in March.
He also would ask the judge to restrain Law from leaving the country, he said.
Mr Garabedian said last night he was considering suing the church for breach of contract.
"We're back on track. We're going to try these cases," Mr Garabedian said.
"I'm going to make the public aware of how much decay there is in this church."
The archdiocese had no comment. Cardinal Law was expected to celebrate Mass today as scheduled.
The archdiocese outraged alleged victims of abuse on Friday by rejecting the two-month-old settlement agreement that would have distributed up to $30 million to alleged victims of defrocked priest John Geoghan.
The Finance Council, a council of lay business people which must review any archdiocese expenditure of more than a million dollars, said the agreement would cause grave financial damage and inhibit the church's ability "to provide a just and proportional response to other victims".