Law (Bernard F.) is born in Torreon, Mexico.

The son of an Air Force colonel and his wife, Bernard Law graduates from Harvard College, is ordained a priest in 1961, and serves as bishop of the Springfield-Cape Girardeau diocese in Missouri. Named archbishop of Boston on January 11, 1984, he comes to Boston to succeed the late Humberto Medeiros. A political liberal, social conservative, and Vatican favorite, Law is elevated to cardinal in 1985.* He is forced to resign as archbishop of Boston due to his handling of the clergy sexual abuse scandal in 2002.* Law is reassigned to the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome, and dies in Rome on December 19, 2017.