VATICAN CITY — Cardinal Bernard Law, who resigned in disgrace as archbishop of Boston over his role in the clergy sex-abuse crisis, has been given a role of honor in the mourning for Pope John Paul II.

The Vatican announced yesterday he will lead one of the daily Masses celebrated in the pope's memory during the nine-day period that follows the funeral, called Novemdiales. The service will be held Monday at Rome's St. Mary Major Basilica, where Law was appointed archpriest after leaving Boston.

Some Roman Catholics in his former archdiocese immediately protested.

Suzanne Morse, spokeswoman for Voice of the Faithful, a Massachusetts-based reform group that emerged from the scandal, said Law's visibility since the pope's death has been "extremely painful" both for abuse survivors and rank-and-file Catholics.

David Clohessy, national director for the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, called it "terribly insensitive."

Law stepped down as archbishop within months after a judge unsealed court records in January 2002 that showed he had allowed priests with confirmed histories of molesting children to continue working in parishes.

Baghdad's Catholics gather for special Mass

BAGHDAD, Iraq — In a city where churches have been bombed by Muslim insurgents and Christians are an imperiled minority, several hundred Catholics attended a special Mass for Pope John Paul II at St. Joseph's Chaldean Church yesterday.

Patriarch Emmanuel Delly, the head of Iraq's Chaldean Catholic Church, concelebrated the Arabic-language Mass with the heads of three other Catholic communities here — Latin, Armenian and Syrian — and a representative of the papal nuncio's office.

"John Paul II has been very close to Iraqis," Archbishop Jean Sleiman of Baghdad's Roman Catholic, or Latin, community said in an interview earlier this week. "Christians need a protector, or father, someone who protects them, and I think the pope is one who protected them."

John Paul opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Vatican explains how body has been preserved

VATICAN CITY — John Paul's corpse was not embalmed, Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said this week, but did undergo treatment to preserve it during public viewing.

Vatican officials indicated that the procedure involved the injection of a formaldehyde-based fluid, which falls short of a full embalming process.

Dr. Giovanni Arcudi, the head of forensic medicine at Rome's Tor Vergata University, confirmed that he had been summoned to the Vatican after the pope's death Saturday night to oversee the body's temporary preservation — but said he had been sworn to secrecy about the details.

John Paul died on Saturday, and his remains were put on public view late Monday on an open platform in St. Peter's Basilica. John Paul II, who expressed a wish to be buried underground, was to be placed in John XXIII's vacant tomb.

Atmospheric conditions in the underground Vatican grottoes, combined with the traditional method of papal burial in three caskets enclosing one another, are conducive to natural mummification, said Vincenzo Pascali, director of forensic medicine at Rome's Catholic University.

Skullcap he never got to wear remains on display

ROME — The tailoring shop that served Pope John Paul II for 26 years paid a poignant tribute to the pontiff yesterday, displaying in its window a white silk skullcap that he never had the chance to wear.

Resting on a cloth of red silk, the "zucchetto," or skullcap, was the only item on display at the tiny, old-fashioned Ditta A. Gammarelli shop in downtown Rome nestled in the shadow of the Pantheon.

Meanwhile, the shop was busy preparing clothes for the next pope, with three sets of outfits — small, medium and large — to be shipped to the Vatican.