Amazing:

...The Vatican press office released a statement Thursday morning announcing that Cardinal Bernard F. Law was chosen for a new job in the Holy City.

The Vatican statement said Pope John Paul II named Law archpriest of St. Mary Major Basilica in Rome, one of four churches under direct Vatican jurisdiction. Law will now be responsible for the financial management of that church....

Sources say St. Mary's is one of the biggest churches in Rome.

Law, 72, resigned as archbishop of Boston on Dec. 13, 2002, over the clergy sex abuse crisis and his failure to protect children from sexually abusive priests....

--WCVB, Boston

But he's undoubtedly anti-abortion, so it's OK.

The person who tipped me to this is a former monk who forwards an e-mail from a friend:

I don't know if you saw the news item, but we now have confirmation both that "zero tolerance" does not apply to negligent bishops and that Rome is really out of contact with sentiment on the street...Today, John Paul II (or at least the people around him) appointed Bernard Law as Archpriest of the Patriarchal Liberian Basilica of St. Mary Major. As archpriest not only will he get a handsome income of over 10,000 euros a month, a baroque apartment that runs the length of the basilica on its gospel side (I was once the guest of the previous archpriest, Cardinal Furno), and the right to pontificate at a gem of a church, he'll also be able to attend all the curial meetings, including those of the Congregation of Bishops, on which he sits, and influence policy with regard to America. Ah...

(The reader comments at WCVB are quite negative also.)