Controversial cardinal leads Mass amid protest
 |  Cardinal Bernard Law celebrates Mass on Monday in St. Peter's Basilica. |
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 Cardinal Bernard Law leads a funeral Mass amid protests.
 Protesters say they'll target Cardinal Bernard Law.
 Abuse victims object to a disgraced priest's role in the pope's funeral.
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VATICAN CITY (CNN) -- Cardinal Bernard Law helped lead a mourning Mass for Pope John Paul II on Monday, amid protests about his time as archbishop of Boston, Massachusetts, during a sexual abuse scandal.
Court documents showed that Law knowingly moved priests accused of sexually abusing young people from parish to parish without disclosing allegations against them.
Law acknowledged that he had failed to discipline priests accused of abusing hundreds of young people in the Boston area.
Amid public outrage, Law resigned in 2002 and was later appointed archpriest of Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.
On Monday, Law celebrated one of nine scheduled Masses at St. Peter's Basilica to mourn the pope, who died April 2 at age 84. Each Mass is being celebrated by a high-ranking church member.
"Law's very prominent presence in the Vatican this week is reopening a lot of old wounds," said Paul Steidler, a spokesman for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). "It's like surgical stitching is being ripped up, and salt put back into those.
"There is no other church official in America who has a more documented record in the courts and elsewhere of aiding and abetting serial child rapists -- predator priests who are out there," said Steidler, who said he was sexually abused by a priest as a boy.
Two leaders of the group, both women, who also said they were victims of sexual abuse by priests stood outside St. Peter's Basilica on Monday and handed out protest literature, calling on Law not to lead the Mass.
"We're here to prevent any further pain and suffering," SNAP President Barbara Blaine said. "We believe that at this time Catholics across the globe deserve the right to reflect on the life of and to mourn the passing of Pope John Paul II without this embarrassing and painful topic of the sex abuse scandal coming into play."
The two women also attended the Mass. Later, they spoke with journalists outside the basilica when officers escorted them off of Vatican grounds.
Law has not responded to the protest, nor has the Vatican.
Officials within the Vatican have argued that Law has paid a price by giving up his position in Boston and that his entire career must be considered, Church observers said.
Steidler said: "The mere fact that he is given such a prominent position, and the fact that no U.S. cardinals or other church officials have spoken up against him having this prominent role, is quite disturbing."
"It's a little bit like having Scott Peterson head up a seminar on troubled marriages," Steidler said, referring to an American convicted of murdering his pregnant wife and unborn son.
Law is among Church leaders who will select the next pope, beginning April 18 -- the first day of a secret conclave. SNAP, which says it represents 5,000 victims of sexual abuse by priests, called on Law to recuse himself from the conclave.
After the abuse became public, similar sexual abuse -- in some cases dating back decades -- was uncovered at dioceses across the United States, leading the Roman Catholic Church to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements with victims.
Pope John Paul II told American church leaders there was no place in the priesthood "for those who would harm the young," and said sex abuse by priests was both a sin and a crime.
Steidler said there has been progress since the pontiff made those remarks. But the next pope, he said, must be "energetic and vigorous about rooting out all those bishops who have kept priests in positions of ministry where they can harm children again."
Copyright 2005 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
