Church officials say that Pope Francis is likely to meet with victims of sexual abuse by priests when he comes to America this week -- a sign of continuing turmoil and mistrust among Catholic parishioners following a series of scandals. And when critics call for more transparency and accountability, it's Cardinal Bernard Law they often point to. Law was forced to resign as bishop of the Archdiocese of Boston after a series of stories by a team of investigative reporters at The Boston Globe found victims and uncovered documents showing that church authorities had protected pedophile priests from prosecution — a story that will be revisited by the release next month of a new movie called "Spotlight." But despite the disgrace that befell Cardinal Law in Boston, he found a comfortable and influential second career at the Vatican. 'Lied Through His Teeth' The fall of Law began with a press conference he called in mid-January 2002 — one week after a story published by The Boston Globe revealed that he had protected pedophile priests in the Boston Archdiocese. The scene was Nixonian. A favorite of Pope John Paul II and a close friend of both Bush presidents, Cardinal Law was a red-hatted power broker in Washington and Rome — the two capitals that counted most. But he was under siege — and his assertions were bold. "There is no priest in an assignment in this archdiocese whom we know to have been guilty of child abuse," he said in response to questions. The Globe's Spotlight team of investigative reporters had revealed that Law and other bishops before him had covered up the priests' crimes against children, then moved the priests to new parishes and, as it turned out, new victims. But during that press conference, the cardinal insisted not once, but three times that it was all in the past. Not a pedophile priest was still in service. "When he made those statements, we knew they were false," says Globe editor Walter Robinson, who was on the team that uncovered the abuse. The Globe had a list of accused priests who were still in service and a wave of documents would shred what was left of Law's credibility.

“He had literally stood before the archdiocese and lied through his teeth." Boston Globe reporter Michael Rezendes

"He had literally stood before the archdiocese and lied through his teeth," Globe reporter Michael Rezendes says. A Dramatic 'Fall From Grace' Like Nixon, Law said he wouldn't go. But eventually he had to — a grand jury was afoot and both priests and parishioners were demanding he step down. "He was seen as the most powerful cardinal of the most powerful Catholic Church in the world, meaning the United States, and to fall from that to where he ended up is the most dramatic fall from grace I've ever personally witnessed," says Vatican analyst John Allen, who reports for The Boston Globe. And yet, in a church where all roads lead to Rome, his catastrophic administration and disgrace in Boston was treated more like a flare-up in the provinces. The newspaper of the Vatican Congregation of Bishops put his resignation on page 17. A poster boy for the sexual abuse scandal in one country, Law came to another, the Vatican, in May 2004, where protected and assisted by friends and allies he actually became more influential than he had ever been in Boston. Pope John Paul II named Law archpriest of one of Rome's four papal basilicas, and its most magnificent: Santa Maria Maggiore, the first church dedicated to Mary. A few months later, Law presided at the anniversary of the basilica's dedication more than 16 centuries earlier. The gold ceiling at the Santa Maria Meggiore, where Pope John Paul II assigned Cardinal Bernard Law after he resigned his post as the archbishop of Boston. (David Boeri/WBUR) Above the cardinal and centuries of priceless art, white flower petals dropped from a ceiling gilded in gold. If there was a trace of official embarrassment over Law's presence, it was not apparent. "There are plenty of monasteries that Cardinal Law could have been sent to where he didn't have a position, where he wasn't allowed to be a Vatican official and where it was clearly communicated that he was to live a life of prayer and penance for the crimes that he allowed to be committed against the hundreds if not thousands of children in the Archdiocese of Boston," said Patrick Wall a former monk, former parish priest and a canon lawyer who works on civil cases filed against accused pedophiles.

"Cardinal Law was the last gasp of an old regime, which said even when cardinals have engaged in spectacular failures somehow their dignity and their status has to be protected." John Allen, Vatican analyst for The Boston Globe