After months of criticism for his role in the Catholic church's sex abuse scandal, Cardinal Bernard Law in recent weeks had restored some normalcy to his duties leading the Boston Archdiocese and resumed making high-profile public appearances.
But lurid revelations this past week have renewed anger with Law, and some priests even plan to debate whether the cardinal should keep his job.
Personnel files made public Tuesday, among documents handed to lawyers for dozens of alleged victims, contained some of the most spectacular allegations to emerge so far, suggesting church officials tolerated priests with a range of aberrant behaviors — not just sexual abuse of boys.
Among them: a priest beating his housekeeper and threatening alleged sex abuse victims, another trading cocaine for sex and a third enticing teenagers training to become nuns into sex by claiming to be the second coming of Christ.
Another blow came with the disclosure that a priest had been a womanizer who fathered at least two children, and failed to immediately get medical help for the mother of their children as she overdosed.
"We kept thinking we had seen it all, and we hadn't," said Susan Troy, a member of the lay group Voice of the Faithful, which plans a debate this week on whether to call on Law to resign.
More bad news came Wednesday, with word that an archdiocese financial panel had given Law the authority to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy — a move that may prove financially necessary but would infuriate abuse victims seeking damages.
"The calls for the cardinal to resign among the priests are becoming much more extensive and louder," said the Rev. Robert Bullock, pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows in Sharon. He leads the Boston Priests Forum, a group of about 250 priests that plans a discussion Friday on whether to call on Law to resign. "We're horrified by what we're learning."
There may be more. Additional personnel files sought by plaintiffs' attorneys have yet to be released.
Members of both Voice of the Faithful and the priest forum said the latest revelations were particularly disturbing because Law had assured them nothing else from recent history would emerge from the files. But some of the new files showed priests accused of deviant behavior had simply been transferred to new parishes as recently as 1999.
"I think this is the bale of straw that is going to break his back," said Stephen Pope, chairman of the Boston College theology department.
The release of the personnel records also has speeded up plans by the lay National Review Board, which monitors the church's new clergy sex abuse policy, to question cardinals, archbishops and bishops about the scandal, a member of the panel said Saturday.
"The board is very troubled about the most recent revelations that show that the abuse and its handling was more aggravated than we thought before," said the board member, Robert S. Bennett.
Bennett, a Washington lawyer, said the board will interview about 100 people, both laity and from the church, over the next several months to learn what caused the scandal and try to learn how bishops dealt with sexual abuse allegations.
Bennett said the inquiry had been planned before the personnel documents were released. He did not identify the people the board planned to interview, but said the interviews will start this month.
Archdiocese spokeswoman Donna Morrissey did not respond Saturday to a call seeking comment.
Law had practically dropped out of sight after the church sex scandal broke earlier this year, making few public appearances other than Mass and answering demands for his resignation largely with silence.
That changed this fall. In October, he appeared — along with the governor, Bruce Springsteen and others — at the dedication of a Bunker Hill memorial. He spoke at an anti-abortion rally and held a Mass in support of janitors who are striking for better wages and health care.
Some of Law's supporters said they continue to believe Law can best serve the church by remaining in office to oversee efforts to clean up the problem.
"Certainly, there are problems in our church and the cardinal is taking a leadership role to protect those problems today," said John Vercollone, president of the Boston chapter of Legatus, an organization of Catholic business owners and executives.
But others said Law's presence has become an obstacle to the broader ministry of the church.
"He's tried to rehabilitate himself by making public appearances of a symbolic nature, waving the flag and saying Mass and marching in a pro-life movement," Pope said. "What he doesn't understand is how much his own presence discredits those movements."