By Thomas Palmer, Globe Staff, 5/21/1985

ooking forward to meeting cardinals "representing the spectrum of the world," Bernard F. Law left Boston as an archbishop for the last time yesterday. He returns next week a cardinal.

"I am looking forward to the ability to be with the Holy Father and other members of the college," Archbishop Law said as he hurried out of his Commonwealth avenue residence to the applause and farewells of about 20 nuns, priests and other staff. Like himself, said Archbishop Law, "Some members are new, and I will be having a discussion with them on the mission of the church."

"Do you have my passport?" he asked as he descended the steps to his black Oldsmobile sedan, its trunk packed with bags. An aide went back for the document.

A crowd of 50 to 100 was awaiting the cardinal-designate when, after the 25-minute drive, he arrived at Logan Airport to catch TWA flight 904 to New York. Accompanied by his secretary, Rev. William Helmick, Archbishop Law will arrive at Leonardo da Vinci Airport in Rome at 9 this morning.

"It's been a busy time," the archbishop told a crowd of reporters and photographers. He attended commencement ceremonies at Boston College at 10 a.m., returning across Commonwealth avenue to his residence only about two hours before he had to leave for the airport.

He spent those two hours "getting out from under everything, cleaning off his desk," said Kay Woodward, a spokesman for the archdiocese.

Archbishop Law said his trip to Rome to receive the cardinal's red hat and ring would allow him "to experience in a very unique way the universality of the church."

Noting that some of the cardinals who will be in Rome with him will be from such diverse places as Eastern Europe, Ethiopia and Nicaragua, Archbishop Law said, "We represent a fundamental unity. We come from countries that are not always together. But we can try to reach across barriers, and 'network' people as children of God."

The archbishop said he would "try to approach the event in the context of faith," adding that while an event such as a meeting of the cardinals of the church offers "a better hope for humankind, it is also a burden."

Asked if he was disappointed that it appears only 700 persons will accompany him to Rome instead of the 1600 estimated earlier, Archbishop Law said, "Oh, no. I am amazed at the number . . . going."

He said that he had had questions about people spending their time and money to attend his installation but had concluded that "a teaching moment is an important moment." He said he was happy that so many members of the church had chosen the trip for their vacation.

Archbishop Law is scheduled to be installed, along with 27 other cardinals, at the Vatican on Saturday morning. Tomorrow he will participate in the ordination of Rev. Msgr. Edward M. Egan as auxiliary bishop of New York. He and a few other Bostonians will have a private audience with Pope John Paul II next week.

Airline passengers and others at the airport yesterday greeted Archbishop Law, shook his hand, took his picture, and wished him arrivederci.

Asked whether he thought he would be changed by the events of the next 10 days in Rome, the archbishop said: "I hope that I won't be any fatter, but I might be, given all that pasta over there."

In a reference to the hostility the Pope met on his recent trip to the Netherlands, Archbishop Law said that in his audience with the Pope he would assure the pontiff "that he is indeed well loved and well supported," both in the Boston community "and in the wider population as well."

Escorting the archbishop to the airport, in addition to Fr. Helmick, were Rev. Robert Banks and Rev. Frederick Ryan.

"The last time I did this was when Cardinal Cushing went to Rome (in 1958)," recalled one of the clergy present to see the archbishop off at his home on the grounds of St. John's Seminary on a brilliant summerlike day. "We froze. We waited and waited and waited in our robes."

Just before the archbishop departed for the airport, a 4-foot high package was delivered, a gift from the Knights of Columbus in Branson, Mo., part of Archbishop Law's former diocese.

Ray Gaffke of Blue Eye, Mo., said in a telephone interview yesterday that the gift was an oil painting of a flower and a rosary done by a local artist and that it "represents what we stand for."

"We miss him down here," Gaffke said. "You guys got a pretty good guy, you know that."

This story ran in the Boston Globe on 5/21/1985.
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