BOSTON (Reuters) - Boston's Cardinal Bernard Law on Wednesday began a court-ordered deposition in the child sexual abuse case of defrocked priest John Geoghan, the first time he will testify under oath since the scandal over pedophile priests hit the Roman Catholic Church.
Law, the senior U.S. prelate, entered Suffolk Superior Court at about 8:50 a.m. to begin the deposition, which lawyers for alleged victims of Geoghan said could last three days or longer.
The deposition will be videotaped but the tape will not be made public. A transcript of the deposition is expected to be included in the Geoghan trial documents.
Suffolk Superior Court Judge Constance Sweeney Monday ordered Law to answer questions, saying she was concerned the pope might summon the cardinal to Rome and put him out of reach of the U.S. legal system.
She made her ruling after the archdiocese last Friday backed out of a multimillion-dollar settlement with 86 plaintiffs in the civil suit, saying it was too expensive.
"This court has significant concerns about whether the cardinal will be available for deposition unless his deposition is taken soon," Sweeney said. "His choice of whether his deposition is taken is not his alone. It belongs to the pope in Rome. If the pope tells him to go over there, he goes."
Sexual abuse allegations against Geoghan, who is serving a prison term for fondling a 10-year-old boy, triggered the crisis that has shaken the U.S. Catholic Church and prompted action from the Vatican.
About 130 people accused Geoghan of molesting them during his 30 years as a Boston priest. The Boston Archdiocese is the fourth largest in the United States with about 2.1 million Catholics.
Court documents show Law knew of Geoghan's problems but failed to keep him away from children.
Law has rejected calls for his resignation over his handling of the scandal and has not commented on news reports he will shortly leave Massachusetts for an assignment in Rome.
SHANLEY PLEADS
Tuesday, Father Paul Shanley, a 71-year-old Boston priest accused of some of the most egregious sex abuse crimes involving the clergy, pleaded not guilty to repeatedly raping a boy, sometimes in the confessional.
Shanley, who advocated sex between men and boys, is charged with three counts of child rape. Each carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. The judge set bail at $750,000.
Shanley is accused of raping the boy inside a suburban Boston church's rectory, confessional and bathroom between 1983 and 1990, when the child was between 6 and 13. The alleged victim is 24 now.
Not long after Shanley's arraignment, police in Massachusetts arrested former priest Ronald Paquin and charged him with one count of rape of a child under 16.
The Boston Globe reported that Essex District Attorney Kevin Burke said the charge against Paquin may involve at least 50 incidents with a boy between 1990 and 1992 in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine, with the first alleged incident occurring when the boy was 12.
Paquin is expected to be arraigned Wednesday.
While Boston remains the epicenter of the controversy, it has rippled around the country as priests in nearly a dozen diocese have been removed because of accusations of abuse.
Sex-abuse scandals have also tarnished the Catholic Church in other countries, with bishops in Ireland and Poland resigning because of their mishandling of allegations. Africa, Australia and Canada have also been hit.
Public outcry over the cover-up grew so loud that the Vatican summoned U.S. Cardinals to Rome to hold an unprecedented meeting on the problem. The outcome of the meeting was harshly criticized by many U.S. Catholics, who said church leaders failed to provide enough transparency on the crisis.
The issue is likely to remain in the public eye at least until June, when U.S. bishops convene a national meeting in Dallas where they are expected to draft guidelines on dealing with accused priests.