| Tridentine Mass in Rome |
| Cardinal Law Surfaces in Rome at Traditional Mass |
| (Reuters) |
| Sat May 24, 2003 02:37 PM ET |
| By Philip Pullella |
| ROME (Reuters) - Cardinal Bernard Law, who has kept |
| mostly out of sight since resigning six months ago over |
| U.S. Catholic Church pedophile scandal allegations, |
| resurfaced in Rome on Saturday at an old-style Latin |
| mass. |
| The former archbishop of Boston, Massachusetts declined |
| to discuss the scandal in which his old archdiocese |
| faces legal suits from hundreds of alleged victims. |
| "I have come to Rome for meetings," Law told reporters. |
| It was unclear if Law, who has spent most of his time |
| in a monastery in the United States, would be meeting |
| Pope John Paul. |
| He sat in the first row during the Latin mass at the |
| Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. The Vatican permitted |
| the mass as a gesture of reconciliation with breakaway |
| traditionalists and Law was among six cardinals to |
| attend. |
| The legal suits allege that under Law's leadership, the |
| Boston archdiocese ignored reports that priests were |
| sexually abusing children and instead moved suspected |
| and known pedophiles from parish to parish without |
| alerting the public. |
| It was believed to be the first time that Law has been |
| in Rome since December 14, the day after he resigned |
| over the scandal that first erupted in January 2002. |
| Law said he had found the old-style Latin mass "very |
| moving." |
| POPE'S RECONCILIATION BID WITH TRADITIONALISTS |
| It was the first time the pope had allowed the mass, a |
| battle-cry for traditionalist Catholics who oppose |
| changes in the Church over the past four decades, to be |
| celebrated in a major basilica in Rome. |
| Allowing traditionalists to celebrate the mass in such |
| an important church was the latest in a series of |
| attempts by the pope at reconciliation with the |
| followers of the late French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. |
| Lefebvre and his followers strongly opposed the |
| modernization of Roman Catholicism after the 1962-65 |
| Second Vatican Council, which relegated the Latin mass |
| to the history books in favor of services in local |
| languages. |
| The Vatican excommunicated Lefebvre for ordaining |
| bishops without papal permission in 1988. He died in |
| 1991, leaving a movement of several hundred thousand |
| whose leaders still reject some Vatican policies. |
| Although a drop in the ocean of the world's one billion |
| Catholics, the pope has kept up dialogue with them. |
| The service, called the Tridentine Mass, was a |
| throw-back to the liturgy of more than 40 years ago. |
| It was all in Latin except for the sermon by the |
| celebrant, Cardinal Dario Castrillion Hoyos, who told |
| the congregation of the pope's love for them. |
| Traditionalists placed dozens of black veils in a |
| basket at the entrance so women could cover their heads |
| the way they were obliged to before the Second Vatican |
| Council reforms. |