Boston ? Brushing aside calls for his resignation, Cardinal Bernard Law said Friday that he would serve the Boston Archdiocese “as long as God gives me the opportunity.” He also offered his most detailed explanation to date of how the sex scandal engulfing the church came to pass.

The 70-year-old Roman Catholic prelate acknowledged the church was too intent on keeping episodes of abuse quiet “to avoid scandal to the faithful and to preserve the reputation of the priest.”

“We now realize both within the church and in society at large that secrecy often inhibits healing and places others at risk,” Law wrote to archdiocese priests in a two-page letter released by the church.

Law suggested a lack of psychological instruction at seminaries, the failure to weigh the “criminality” of child molestation and even shoddy record keeping contributed to the crisis.

Determined to stay

But he indicated that he wasn’t stepping down and was planning to help the church weather the storm and make sure no child is ever molested again.

“As long as I am your archbishop, I am determined to provide the strongest leadership possible,” he wrote. “I know that there are many who believe my resignation is part of the solution. It distresses me greatly to have become a lightning rod of division when mine should be a ministry of unity.

“My desire is to serve this archdiocese and the whole church with every fiber of my being. This I will continue to do as long as God gives me the opportunity.”

‘Epistle of indifference’

Law’s letter drew sharp criticism from church experts and others.

“The letter is horrible,” said Philip Lawler, editor of Catholic World Report and a former editor of The Pilot, the archdiocese’s official newspaper. “It’s going to aggravate the problem and make his own life more difficult.”

Arthur Austin of suburban Boston, who says he was molested for years by a priest, called the letter “an epistle of indifference.”

Some theologians, both Catholics and non-Catholics, noted the Vatican could still remove Law from his post.

Martin E. Marty, a Lutheran minister and noted church historian, said Law had been “No. 1” in the U.S. Catholic hierarchy since the deaths of Chicago’s Cardinal Bernardin and New York’s Cardinal O’Connor, yet “we haven’t seen any other bishop speaking up for him.”

Marty said he expected the Vatican to move Law out of Boston within months.

Law has headed the nation’s fourth-largest archdiocese since 1984, but he has come under increasing pressure to resign since the scandal erupted in January in the Boston area.

He has acknowledged transferring the Rev. John Geoghan to another parish despite knowing of sexual misconduct allegations against the now-defrocked priest at the center of the scandal.

Law has apologized to Geoghan’s victims. He also has reversed a long-standing confidentiality policy and gave authorities the names of more than 80 priests accused of abuse.

But polls show he has lost support among the archdiocese’s 2 million Catholics. Publications including Boston’s two major newspapers have called for him to step down.

Not everyone was critical of Law. Ray Flynn, former mayor of Boston and ambassador to the Vatican, said Law’s decision to stay was made “in the best interest of the church.”