perfidy

Bernard Law, otherwise known as Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston, Protector of Babytouchers, has been reassigned by the Pope. I'm not Catholic, not by a long shot, so I don't pretend to know too much of how the church works traditionally. I do know that the priesthood takes care of its own, but even so it seems wrong that a man who is largely responsible for covering up and perpetuating a widespread and decades-long child abuse crisis, who knowingly allowed children to be put in danger of abuse time and again, is now being rewarded with the "archpriest[hood] of St. Mary Major Basilica," one of "'the four most important basilicas' in Rome," with a probable "10,000 euro monthly stipend, or about $12,000," a post which is "also likely to make Cardinal Law one of the most influential Americans in the Vatican."

I don't mean to malign the Catholic church. This just doesn't make a bit of sense to me. Why give Law a Roman sinecure and the Pope's ear, instead of putting him quietly to pasture somewhere out of the way?