Law was ordered to answer questions from the attorney for 86 people who filed lawsuits alleging Law and the Boston Archdiocese, which he heads, was negligent in supervising pedophile defrocked priest John Geoghan and failed to prevent abuse.

The deposition was ordered after the archdiocese last week backed out of a settlement with Geoghan's victims that would have been worth up to $30 million.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs' also pounded Law with questions on the breakdown of that settlement.

Law, who has withstood repeated calls for his resignation from many who say he has mishandled the sex abuse cases, arrived at the downtown courthouse amid heavy security.

The closed-door deposition opened with his attorney, Wilson Rogers Jr., making a standing objection to the questioning, saying "the inquiry into the inner workings of the church was inappropriate."

Under questioning, Law explained that he was both a U.S. citizen and a citizen of the Vatican; as a cardinal, he is technically a "prince." He said he only recently learned of that status.

"But I must say that it hasn't been something that I've been conscious of in the past 17 years," Law said, according to a transcript released by attorneys for the plaintiffs.

It had been suggested Law could enjoy diplomatic immunity from civil lawsuits because of his dual citizenship.

William Gordon, an attorney for the plaintiffs, challenged Law about why he approved Geoghan's transfer in 1984, even though he'd received letters and other evidence of abuse by Geoghan.

Law said he didn't recall reading letters warning about Geoghan's behavior and that doctors said Geoghan was not a threat.

"I'm sure that medical assurance was given," Law said. "Whether it was subsequently put in writing and in an earlier form given orally, I cannot say. But I can say, without a shadow of a doubt, that this letter would never have been put before me for a signature had we not had the assurance of someone competent to give that assurance that this assignment was safe."

He acknowledged, however, that the archdiocese hadn't developed a written policy on handling allegations of sexual abuse until 1993.

Geoghan was sentenced to a nine- to 10-year prison term in January for sexually molesting a boy. He has been accused of molesting more than 130 children.

The deposition of Law is a legal rarity for someone of such high church ranking.

Law said he did not remember reading a letter from Margaret Gallant, a relative of seven alleged Geoghan victims, who had expressed disbelief that the church gave Geoghan another chance at St. Brendan's Parish in Boston. Nor did he recall a letter from Bishop John D'Arcy warning him that Geoghan was unfit to be reassigned.

However, Law said he recognized his handwriting on a note forwarding one of Gallant's letters to Bishop Thomas Daily, one of his subordinates, with instructions: "Urgent, please follow through."

In the 1984 letter, Gallant alleged Geoghan had abused seven people while at St. Andrew's Parish in Roxbury.

"It's just impossible for him not to have remembered that letter," said Geoghan victim Mark Keane, who attended the deposition. "I found that the cardinal had some selective amnesia."

Mitchell Garabedian, an attorney for the Geoghan victims, said Law seemed sad during parts of the questioning. Law's deposition is scheduled to continue Friday and Monday at the archdiocese's chancery in Boston.

"He gave a lot of his standard speeches, his standard responses to this situation," Garabedian said.

Lawyers for Law would not comment.

Law repeatedly emphasized that he had relied on the judgment of others. Law has said he was prompted to assign Geoghan a new parish on the advice of two doctors, even though both lacked proper credentials in sex abuse matters and one had been accused in a lawsuit of molesting one of his patients.

"Had the letter come saying that this person may not be safely assigned, he wouldn't have been assigned," Law said Wednesday.

Law acknowledged he had not specified any qualifications for the psychiatric evaluators beyond that they be "professionally competent."

"I think all of us understand much more fully today what we're dealing with in this terrible pathology than we did earlier on," he said.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs spent much of a two-hour afternoon session questioning Law on the breakdown of the settlement agreement, pressing Law for details of his financial advisers' objections to the deal.

Gordon also questioned the council's decision to inform the media of its rejection of the deal before the alleged victims -- some of whom were suicidal -- could be told.

Law said that, while he and finance council members knew some of the plaintiffs were suicidal, the decision to release the news quickly was made so that the information was "out as accurately in as timely a fashion as possible."

In hindsight, though he acknowledged he would have handled the release of the news differently.

"It's part of what I have come to experience as an exceedingly painful, complicated mess," Law said.