Cardinal Law resigns

Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston, offered his resignation to the Pope this morning, and it has been accepted, according to BBC and Vatican reports. Pressure on him to resign has built up over the past few months from laypeople and his own priests, in the wake of more than 450 lawsuits alleging child abuse by priests under his authority in the Archdiocese of Boston . The Archdiocese is currently considering going into bankruptcy. The Cardinal and five of his former bishops reportedly have received subpoenas to appear before a state grand jury investigating whether crimes were committed in their supervision of priests accused of sexually abusing children. When he set out from Boston at the beginning of the week, Cardinal Law had planned to return tomorrow.