On March 23, 1984, Cardinal Bernard took over as the Archbishop of Boston, MA.  For the majority of his career as Archbishop, Cardinal Law was extremely well liked by both Catholics and other communities of Boston.  He was known for his extensive work with immigrants, minorities, the poor, and his caring outreach to the less fortunate.  He worked as the foreign policy architect at the U.S Conference of Catholic Bishops, traveled to Cuba to meet with Fidel Castro to support the Catholic Church and even met with President George W. Bush after the tragedy of September 11th along with several other important religious figures of the United States.  However, Cardinal Law’s legacy will not be remembered by his many good deeds, but by his extensive involvement in the Sex Scandal of the Boston Archdiocese.

Attention was first brought to Cardinal Law in 2002 shortly after the emergence of evidence in Father Geoghan’s extensive sexual abuse case was made more public.  Law officials, Catholics across the United States, and the general public was horrified to find out that Cardinal Law had moved Father John Geoghan from church to church after receiving knowledge of Geoghan’s pedophilia.  Following Geoghan’s criminal investigation, more knowledge of priests committing sex crimes across the country came into focus.  Among them was Father Paul Shanley, another priest from the Boston Archdiocese who had been migrated from church to church even after it was made apparent that Shanley had a deep and disturbing history of sexual abuse.  Following in Father Geoghan’s footsteps, Father Paul Shanley became another high profile point of focus in Boston, whose victims were numbered more than 26, and was found to be dealt with in the same manner that Father Geoghan had been.  Cardinal Law promoted Father Shanley to pastor of Newton church, and suggested that Shanley was no threat, described him as “a priest in good standing” and he would only be a positive influence for other Catholic churches in San Bernardino, CA.

In relation to Father Geoghan’s case, Cardinal Law not only knew about Geoghan’s allegations of previous sexual abuse, but represented Geoghan in a positive light, and deeply sympathized with him during his psychiatric treatment for pedophilia.  After Geoghan’s thorough psychotherapy treatment and his return to St. Julia’s church, Cardinal Law wrote to him that ''I am confident you will again render fine priestly service to the people of God in Saint Julia Parish.”  Following Father Geoghan’s inevitable retirement from priesthood, Cardinal Law wrote to Geoghan stating: “yours has been an effective life of ministry, sadly impaired by illness . . .God bless you, John.” 

Once Father Geoghan’s case was made public, Cardinal Law was immediately scrutinized.  The public demanded that Law step down from his position and resign as the Archbishop of Boston.  In the criminal investigation against Father Geoghan, Law was portrayed as being unresponsive to cries for help from Geoghan’s victims or their family members, and protective of his priest.  Law was accused of moving Geoghan to different parishes as a strategy to cover up the pedophile’s sex crimes in order to avoid controversy in the Catholic Church.  Law’s reasoning for allowing Father’s Geoghan priest career to continue was that Geoghan had undergone psychiatric treatment, regardless of the fact that Geoghan continued to sexually abuse boys after his numerous treatments, and after Geoghan’s doctors had ordered that he should not be allowed to have any unsupervised contact with minor boys.  Even after much pressure had been put on Cardinal Law to retire as Archbishop of Boston, he refused to step down for quite some time.  It took a letter from fifty-eight other priests from the surrounding Boston area that requested/demanded Law’s resignation for it to finally happen.  The letter recognized all of the amazing work that Cardinal Law had done for Boston, but agreed that due to recent events, his leadership skills were no longer the same and it was in the best interest of the Archdiocese of Boston that Cardinal Law step down as Archbishop. 

"I wish I could undo what I now see to have been mistakes.  However, that is not a possibility."  This statement was released from Law in the beginning of 2002 when the Boston Archdiocese sex scandal was beginning to unfold.  Pope John Paul II accepted Cardinal Law’s resignation on December 14, 2002.