BOSTON, May 8 -- Cardinal Bernard F. Law, the nation's senior Roman Catholic prelate, said under oath today that he did not recall seeing letters warning him about a suspected pedophile priest and said he was sure he would have relied on the advice of doctors and subordinates in assigning him to a new parish.
For nearly five hours in a closed chamber, Law answered questions about his supervision of convicted pedophile and defrocked priest John J. Geoghan. The deposition was ordered Monday by a Massachusetts judge amid concerns that Law might leave for Rome and enjoy diplomatic immunity because of his dual U.S.-Vatican citizenship.
Throughout the proceeding, Law repeatedly said he could not remember specific incidents, and at one point stated: "I do not recall seeing this letter as I sit here before you and try to reconstruct what I knew and didn't know in 1984."
Law arrived at the downtown courthouse this morning under heavy security and against the backdrop of an ever-widening church crisis. The videotaped deposition opened with the cardinal's attorney, Wilson D. Rogers Jr., issuing a standing objection to the proceedings, saying "the inquiry into the internal workings of the church is inappropriate."
William H. Gordon, an attorney for 86 of the plaintiffs suing Geoghan, then challenged Law about why he approved Geoghan's transfer in 1984.
Law said he did not remember specific conversations about Geoghan or a letter from Bishop John D'Arcy warning him that Geoghan was unfit to be reassigned. Gordon asked the cardinal about a 1984 letter from Marge Gallant, aunt of seven of Geoghan's alleged victims, who wrote to him in dismay that the church had reassigned the troubled priest to St. Brendan's Parish in Dorchester, Mass.
"Do you recall talking to anybody about this letter about the time it came in?" Gordon asked, according to a court transcript.
Law answered: "I do not recall."
Gordon: "Do you recall if you were troubled by the information in this letter?"
Law: "I do not recall having seen the letter at the time."
At that point Gordon referred to a handwritten note on the letter, indicating it should be forwarded to one of Law's top assistants, Bishop Thomas Daily. The note said: "Urgent, please follow through."
Gordon asked: "Do you recall writing the note . . . ?"
Law: "I do not recall writing that note."
Gordon: "But that is your handwriting?"
Law: "But I have no doubt but that that's my writing and signature.
Law said the note meant that "I considered this an urgent matter, and that I wanted it followed through, and I expected him to follow through for me, follow through meaning doing whatever it takes to deal with this thing expeditiously and correctly."
The cardinal repeatedly emphasized that he relied on others to take appropriate action. The chancery kept confidential personnel files, but "I did not go to those, I did not keep those," Law said.
"[Not] being an expert in this pathology, not being a psychiatrist, not being a psychologist, my . . . modus operandi was to rely upon those whom I considered and would have reason to consider to have an expertise that I lacked in assessing this pathology, in assessing what it is that this person could safely do or not do," he said.
"Had the letter come saying that this person may not be safely assigned, he wouldn't have been assigned, and I would have assumed that that was the case, and I would have trusted that," he said.
During a break, J. Owen Todd, the cardinal's personal attorney, told reporters the deposition was "going swimmingly."
But Mitchell Garabedian, an attorney for the Geoghan plaintiffs, told reporters that Law had been subdued and seemed sad during the questioning. "He gave a lot of his standard speeches, his standard responses to this situation," Garabedian said. "On many occasions, he didn't recall. He didn't recall a whole lot about Father Geoghan."
Mark Keane, the only plaintiff allowed to attend the deposition, agreed. "I found that the cardinal had some selective amnesia," he said. "I believe he remembers. So, yeah, I think he lied."
During the deposition, Law also said that he urged the archdiocese's finance council to approve a multimillion-dollar settlement with 86 plaintiffs in their lawsuits against Geoghan. The council backed out of the deal Friday in order to develop a global settlement for a growing number of claimants, he said.
Law said that in hindsight, he wondered if news of the settlement's rejection, which was first released to the media, could have been delivered to the plaintiffsin a more compassionate manner.
"[It's] part of what I have come to experience as an exceedingly painful, complicated mess," he said.
The deposition will continue Friday at the archdiocese's chancery in Boston and is expected to last several days.