VATICAN CITY -- Boston Cardinal Bernard F. Law made an unannounced visit to Rome for discussions with Vatican officials amid further disclosures of cases of priestly misconduct in Boston and the specter of a potential archdiocesan bankruptcy filing.

"I can confirm the presence of Cardinal Bernard Francis Law in Rome," Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said in a Dec. 9 statement.

"The cardinal has come to inform the Holy See about certain aspects of the situation in his diocese of Boston," Navarro-Valls said.

Vatican press officials declined to identify the Vatican offices Cardinal Law was visiting, specific issues he would be raising, or how long he was expected to remain in Rome.

The cardinal's visit came less than a week after the Boston archdiocesan finance council voted to allow him to pursue reorganizing the archdiocese under Chapter 11 of the Federal Bankruptcy Code.

The archdiocese said Dec. 4 the cardinal had not made a final decision on filing bankruptcy, for which he would need Vatican approval.

No U.S. diocese has ever made a Chapter 11 filing, in which a court determines what a corporation must do to satisfy creditors equitably and, if possible, regain solvency.

The Archdiocese of Boston faces some 450 lawsuits for alleged sexual abuse of minors by its priests.

The cardinal's visit also coincided with mounting anger among sex abuse victims' groups following the Dec. 3 release of more than 2,000 pages of archdiocesan files on eight priests accused of sexual misconduct in the 1960s to 1990s. The files discuss cases of the accused priests receiving or retaining assignments despite recommendations against moving them.

Because of the new disclosures, some 50 of the archdiocese's 900 priests began circulating a draft petition for the cardinal's resignation.

The documents -- made public when lawyers for alleged victims of Father Paul R. Shanley added the materials to their courtroom file -- marked the first phase in release of what is expected to total about 11,000 pages of files on 65 priests accused of sexual abuse.

Cardinal Law's consultation in Rome was his second unannounced visit to the Vatican this year. After the first one, in April, he issued a statement saying he had raised the possibility of resignation in meetings with Pope John Paul II and other Vatican officials but planned to continue serving the archdiocese "as long as God gives me the opportunity."