News In Brief

Archbishop fro Boston is named by Vatican

Pope John Paul II has appointed Bishop Bernard Law of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, Mo., to be the new archbishop of Boston, the Vatican said Tuesday. Bishop Law succeeds Humberto Cardinal Medeiros, who passed on in September, as spiritual leader of 2 million Roman Catholics in Boston, one of the nation's most important archdioceses.

Bishop Law, born in Torreon, Mexico, received a history degree from Harvard University in 1953 and studied philosophy at St. Joseph's Seminary, New Orleans. He has been active ecumenically.

As archbishop of the third-largest Catholic archdiocese in America, he is virtually certain to become a cardinal, possibly this year.