Bernard Law, the embattled former Boston cardinal whose legacy amid the clergy sex abuse scandal ushered in a painful era for the Roman Catholic Church, died in Rome at the age of 86, according to The Boston Globe and The Boston Herald. At the time he resigned in disgrace in 2002, Law was the nation's senior cardinal. Church records showed that he and other Boston officials transferred priests from parish to parish despite records of abuse. The Boston Globe's Spotlight investigative reporting team first made public the widespread pattern of abuse in Boston's clergy.
