Along with my not having an Oscar for a penis, it was another good thing that Em was depressed for a few days following the funeral. She wouldn’t watch TV; she didn’t read the newspapers. By the time Em heard the news about Cardinal Bernard Law, she was over her inclination to protest. Cardinal Law was the archbishop of Boston; he delivered the homily at O’Connor’s funeral. To be fair, many of the mourners in St. Patrick’s didn’t know how bad Cardinal Bernard Law would turn out to be. Law got a standing ovation for praising O’Connor’s “constant reminder that the church must always be unambiguously pro-life.” The TV cameras in the cathedral had focused on the Clintons and the Gores, who at first remained seated. They eventually stood, reluctantly—or so it was reported. In more than one account I read, the Clintons had refrained from applause, but I was worried Em would have a shit fit because our fellow Democrats had not stayed sitting down. Yet there were no cries to bring back the FUCK THE DEMOCRATS sign—not then.

It would be a couple of years before the scandal of child molestation by Catholic priests implicated the archbishop of Boston. For years, Cardinal Bernard Law had transferred abusive priests to other parishes; he never told the parishioners or informed the police. He’d protected the priests, not their victims. Cardinal Law was vilified in Boston. At the end of 2002, the discredited archbishop flew to Rome, where the pope accepted his resignation. In 2003, Cardinal Law was taken to task by the Massachusetts attorney general. Over sixty years, a thousand children had been abused by more than two hundred priests in the Boston archdiocese. Cardinal Law had known about it; the former archbishop of Boston had suppressed any publicity about it.

The Vatican did more for Cardinal Law than kick him upstairs. In 2004, Cardinal Bernard Law would be appointed as high priest of the Basilica of St. Mary Major—one of Rome’s most prestigious churches. Law would serve on the Vatican committee in charge of advising the pope on the assignments of bishops, notwithstanding that the former archbishop of Boston had been disgraced for covering up the child abuse of priests. His disgrace didn’t matter to the Vatican, where Cardinal Law was rewarded for his staunch defense of church orthodoxy.

What would Nora have said? “Holy crap,” was all Em said about it. Holy crap, I thought.