Bernard Law: Bishop Of Springfield-Cape Girardeau

When Law was consecrated Bishop of Springfield-Cape Girardeau in 1973, he was 42, quite young for a bishop, though not 38, as Joseph Bernardin had been, or 40, like Steven Lopes. My informant, who knew him fairly well during this period, says that in somewhat later years, he did all he could to suppress photos of himself taken during this time, since he felt he looked too young. However, my informant says that Law also suddenly became a blonde, although earlier photos show him with dark hair. All the more reason to suppress those photos.

Blonde or brunette, Law, according to my informant, was an extraordinarily handsome and charismatic individual. He characterizes him as "hyperactively gregarious", but although he'd shake hands warmly, my informant always had the sense that he was looking over your shoulder to see if there was someone else nearby he should cultivate more intensely. He traveled extensively, not just in the US, but frequently to Rome, as well as to South and Central America, where his fluent Spanish stood him in good stead with prelates there.

My informant says, in fact, that Law's Spanish wasn't just good, it was perfect, lacking any gringo accent, completely idiomatic. He vacationed in Argentina and maintained close ties with the hierarchy there, although not specifically with Bergoglio. All of this continues to suggest to me that if Law was "conservative", he kept it well hidden, and he was clearly a popular figure. Certainly the very liberal kingmaker Bernardin saw no obstacles to Law's continued advancement.

My informant also noticed that, apparently even before his overtures to disgruntled Anglicans, Law entertained visits from other Protestant pastors exploring the option of becoming Catholic. His position on ecumenism with the USCCB would have made this logical. But interestingly, Law sometimes put them off by claiming they'd be "too conservative" in their theology for the Catholic Church of the 1970s. This raises questions about his overall agenda: it doesn't appear that he had a single view of bringing Anglicans or other Protestants into the Church because they supported traditional liturgy, or indeed because they found male priesthood or teachings on the sixth commandment attractive -- at least, that is, until John Paul II.

But I'll deal with the question of Anglican outreach separately in my next post.

My informant raises an intriguing question: we get a pretty clear picture that Law was working for himself, and a "conservative" agenda seems always to have been either secondary or well hidden. But who else was he working for? Law, my informant observes, knew the CIA was called "the company" by insiders, and he referred to it that way himself. His father appears to have been involved in intelligence work of some sort, possibly even from the time of the Mexican Punitive Expedition of 1916, since many aspects of it remain classified.

Bernard Aloysius spent a good part of his working career in Latin America, possibly under some sort of cover as an airline employee, while maintaining his status in the Air Force. But my informant says, "intelligence is a family", and George HW Bush, whose family was friendly with Law, was Director of Central Intelligence in 1976-77, although he almost certainly had intelligence connections before that time and certainly afterward as vice president and president.

Law was also well acquainted with Thomas Comerford Lawler, a well-connected and active Catholic author who also spent 26 years with the CIA and, according to my informant, made a point of his continued intelligence work after his retirement. He apparently met frequently with Law during his time in Springfield.

So it's reasonable to ask on more than one level who Law was working for -- and the Bushes, keep in mind, were and are not "conservative", and neither is the agenda of the CIA.