BOSTON — Answering questions under oath for the first time about what he knew and did in the case of a pedophile priest, Cardinal Bernard F. Law said Wednesday that he was aware of accusations against the priest as early as September 1984 but that he turned the matter over to his top aides and never followed up to learn specifically what they did.
Speaking in a deposition ordered by a judge, the cardinal said he followed the judgment of doctors and Bishop Thomas V. Daily, the cardinal's top deputy at the time and now bishop of Brooklyn, when he allowed the priest, John J. Geoghan, to be assigned to a parish in 1984, less than two months after he had been removed from another parish because of complaints that he was associating with boys.
"I relied upon those who assisted me in this matter to do all that was appropriate," he said.
According to a transcript of the question-and-answer session with lawyers for 86 people who say they were molested by Geoghan, Law said he could not recall seeing documents about the priest that bore notations the cardinal had written at the time and could not remember specific conversations about him.
In particular, he said he had no recollection of letters that warned him about Geoghan's history of sexual abuse, including one from one of his bishops who wrote to protest the priest's reassignment and another from the aunt of seven boys Geoghan had admitted molesting.
The cardinal also acknowledged that he did not specify what type of doctor needed to give approval before Geoghan was given another parish assignment. According to church documents, two doctors wrote that Geoghan could return to parish work in 1984. One was a general practitioner with no psychiatric background who had been Geoghan's family physician for years; the other was a psychiatrist who had settled a complaint that he himself had molested a patient.
Law, the archbishop of Boston and the country's most senior Roman Catholic prelate, was ordered to be deposed this week after the archdiocese on Friday backed out of a multimillion-dollar settlement with the 86 Geoghan plaintiffs. Church officials said the deal was scuttled because of concerns that there would not be enough money to pay the scores of additional people who have accused priests of sexual abuse in recent weeks.
In taking the rare step of ordering an immediate deposition for the cardinal, Judge Constance Sweeney of Superior Court said she was concerned that the Vatican might reassign him to Rome soon and appoint him to a position that would give him diplomatic immunity.
In the first day of a deposition expected to take three days, Law answered questions for about five hours. The deposition was held behind closed doors in the Suffolk Superior Courthouse in downtown Boston, but a transcript was made available Wednesday afternoon by the court reporter. The cardinal, who for months has resisted calls for his resignation from angry Catholics, entered the courthouse surrounded by heavy security.