BOSTON, Nov. 22 (UPI) -- Cardinal Bernard F. Law met with Pope John Paul II in Rome, nearly a year after he stepped down as archbishop of Boston.
There was speculation the meeting could signal Law is getting a new assignment from the church, the Boston Globe reported Saturday.
Vatican officials offered no explanation for the visit, other than announcing Law was among three prelates granted an audience by the pope Friday, the Globe said.
Law, 72, resigned last year after 11 months of criticism for his failure to remove sexually abusive priests from churches.
Despite the scandal in the United States, Law could be on his way to a Vatican post.
"Cardinal Law remains in the pope's and the Vatican's good graces, notwithstanding the scandal he left behind in Boston," the Rev. Richard P. McBrien, a theologian at the University of Notre Dame, told the Globe.
Law currently lives in a small convent in Clinton, Md., where he serves as chaplain.
