Early Life
Law, an only child, was born in the Mexican city of Torreón, Coahuila, on November 4, 1931. His father was a United States Army pilot in World War I, and had moved to Torreón to run an airline. His mother, Helen, was a convert to Roman Catholicism from Presbyterianism.
He attended schools in New York, Florida, Georgia, and Barranquilla, Colombia, before graduating from Charlotte Amalie High School in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands.
He graduated from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts with a major in medieval history, before beginning philosophy studies at Saint Joseph Seminary College in St. Benedict, Louisiana, from 1953 to 1955, and then theological studies at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Worthington, Ohio, from 1955 to 1961.
On May 21, 1961. Law was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Natchez-Jackson in Mississippi. He served two years as an assistant pastor of St. Paul's Catholic Church in Vicksburg, and was made the editor of the Mississippi Register, the diocesan newspaper. He also held several other diocesan posts from 1963 to 1968, including director of the family life bureau and spiritual director of the minor seminary.
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