Priest slow to seek aid for drug victim, fatal. Another threw housekeeper downstairs
Pressure on abuse row cardinal to go
Hundreds demonstrate. Priests gave drugs to the young, seduced would-be nuns; bankruptcy probable

OUTSIDE the stately Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston on Sunday, hundreds of demonstrators heaped vitriol on the Church most of them were raised in.
  Brandishing posters of youthful sexual abuse victims, they spoke of disappointment, betrayal and even criminal complicity on the part of the leaders of Boston's Catholic archdiocese.
  They chanted "Law must go" and "Indict Law now, throw the bum out".
  But Cardinal Bernard Law, leader of the city's 2.1 million Catholics, heard none of the entreaties.
  Church spokeswoman Donna Morrissey said he was at the Vatican. She declined to divulge the nature of his visit.
  It was at least his second sudden trip to Rome since calls for his resignation started soon after the clerical sexual abuse scandal erupted in January.
  In April, he visited Pope John Paul to offer his resignation as head of one of the biggest archdioceses in the United States. The Pontiff urged him to stay in his post and ride out the crisis.
  But shocking new revelations last week about clerical misconduct have led to growing demands that the cardinal step down.

A vote by diocesan leaders to authorise the Church in Boston to file for bankruptcy also fuelled calls for his removal.
  A group of priests drafted a letter at the weekend urging him to resign. A copy of the letter, published in the Boston Globe, said: "The priests and the people of Boston have lost confidence in you as their spiritual leader."
  Ms Morrissey said she had not seen the letter and did not know if it had been delivered to the cardinal.
  On the second Sunday of Advent, no explanation was offered for Cardinal Law's absence at the cathedral where he traditionally celebrates Mass.
  His abrupt departure for Rome capped a week that racked an already beleaguered archdiocese.
  First, thousands of pages of previously secret Church personnel documents were made public. They revealed that priests in Boston gave drugs to young parishioners, seduced girls who were studying to become nuns and, in one case, threw a housekeeper down stairs.
  A day later, Church finance leaders said the archdiocese could file for bankruptcy to avoid almost 500 sexual abuse lawsuits pending against it.
  Next, another file showed that a priest in Boston had fathered two children and failed to seek prompt medical help when their mother suffered a fatal drug overdose in his presence. -- LOS ANGELES TIMES