US cardinal testifies in abuse case

Cardinal Law attended a papal mass earlier this week

Cardinal Bernard Law, the Roman Catholic leader in Boston, has testified for the first time in open court about the child sex abuse scandals involving priests in the United States.

The cardinal defended the decision of his archdiocese to back out of a multimillion-dollar legal settlement with dozens of alleged victims of abuse.

Geoghan's trial was the beginning of a torrent of child abuse revelations

He told the court that the agreement - announced in March - was not binding as it had not been signed by all parties.

Eighty-six alleged victims of the defrocked priest, John Geoghan, are seeking a legal ruling to force the Church to honour the agreement, but the archdiocese cited financial concerns when it backed out of the deal in May.

Cardinal Law and other senior officials in Boston have been criticised for trying to cover up sex abuse scandals.

His archdiocese has already suspended 18 priests since the allegations came to light in January.

'Too expensive'

Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who represents the 86 plaintiffs, won permission to question the cardinal after the archdiocese backed out of a settlement worth up to $30m in May.

The archdiocese ruled that the settlement was too expensive and would use up money needed to compensate as many as 400 other plaintiffs who also have cases pending.

What was in place was an agreement in principle of what the settlement would be like. There was not a settlement in place

Cardinal Law

The Church maintains it wants a settlement for all the alleged victims, and it would be unfair to give generous terms to one group at the expense of future litigants.

Cardinal Law has been questioned privately on this topic before, and he has also spoken in church about the scandal, but this was the first time he has been forced publicly to answer questions about the scandal under oath.

The cardinal, dressed in the plain black clothing of a priest, was on the stand for over two hours.

Mr Garabedian asked him to read from an article in the archdiocese newspaper, The Pilot, in which he stated that the settlement was "an important step in reaching closure" for Geoghan's alleged victims.

Bankruptcy claim

When asked why he had never referred to the settlement as "proposed", Cardinal Law said "I did not use that word as a qualifier. I wish obviously now that I had."

Cardinal Law has been accused of covering up abuse

But he maintained that the context was clear and the settlement was never final.

"What was in place was an agreement in principle of what the settlement would be like. There was not a settlement in place," said the cardinal.

"I felt I couldn't sign because there wouldn't be the money to pay it," he said.

On Friday, the Boston Globe reported that the archdiocese was considering filing for bankruptcy, a move that would undermine the ability of plaintiffs to reach monetary settlements.

Unnamed church advisers told the Globe that the move was being considered as a "worst-case scenario".

The archdiocese, facing fewer donations and a weakened economy, has already cut its budget by a third.