Wuerl asks for forgiveness and healing in abuse crisis
Embattled cardinal delivers D.C. homily
WASHINGTON — A somber service Friday marked what could be Cardinal Donald Wuerl’s last Mass as archbishop here.
The embattled cardinal has said he intends to ask Pope Francis to accept his resignation imminently. He has acknowledged the need for new leadership after a grand jury report last month alleged systemic child abuse by priests through Pennsylvania, including in Pittsburgh, where he served as bishop for 18 years before coming to Washington 12 years ago.
During Friday’s homily, Cardinal Wuerl did not refer to his impending departure. Instead he focused on the needs of abuse survivors as he kicked off a six-week “Season of Healing,” in which he asked priests throughout the archdiocese to hold special weekly services on Fridays.
The Mass began with four minutes of silence as celebrants entered in solemnity rather than to the usual sounds of the organ in the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle. The silence was broken by the droning a capella hymn “Kyrie Eleison,” Greek for “Lord, have mercy.”
Cardinal Wuerl asked for mercy along with redemption, forgiveness and, most of all, healing for “all those deeply wounded” by child sexual abuse by clergy.
The wounded include Michael Nugent, a congregant who was invited to light a candle to symbolize the abuse of the past and hope for
the future.
Mr. Nugent, now 72, said he was 13 and an altar boy in Chicago when a priest repeatedly abused him in the sacristy. He said he was 55 before he stopped blaming himself for the assault. That was when someone from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) convinced him it wasn’t his fault.
“The Catholic church tells you from the point of when you’re about 6 years old when you have an understanding of good and evil that you have responsibility, so I always felt a little bit of responsibility,” he explained in an interview after Mass. Mr. Nugent now is an adviser to the Washington Diocese’s Office of Child and Youth Protection.
Mr. Nugent defended Cardinal Wuerl, saying the cardinal got “a bad rap” when he was blamed for more than his share of the problem in Pittsburgh.
Cardinal Wuerl said he understands that people inside and outside the church are filled with righteous anger over the abuse reports.
“Perhaps our Lord can turn our anger into a commitment to work together … to bring about a purification of all who are caught up in this pain and suffering,” he said during Friday’s homily.
A few hundred people attended, including many priests, nuns and seminarians.
“All of us feel a shame that something wrong has happened in our church,” Cardinal Wuerl told them.” This is our spiritual home, and we just expect so much more of it.”
The grand jury report tarnished the cardinal’s reputation for taking a zero-tolerance approach to abuse and prompted calls for his resignation. He was not implicated in the abuse, but the report outlined several ways he failed to do enough to prevent it. He also has been scrutinized over whether and when he knew about allegations that his predecessor in Washington, Theodore McCarrick, abused young priests and seminarians.
Cardinal Wuerl has repeatedly apologized to congregants and priests in Washington, but has not publicly enumerated his missteps.
In a blog post Thursday he said he took full responsibility and wished he could take away people’s “pain, confusion and disillusionment.”
In a letter to priests Sept. 6, he expressed early thoughts about resigning, saying he was considering views of priests who believed the archdiocese “would be well served by new leadership to help move beyond the current confusion, disappointment, and disunity.”
In November 2015, Cardinal Wuerl submitted his resignation, as all bishops must at age 75, but it is up to the pope to decide when to accept it. Many cardinals continue in their roles until age 80.
But earlier this week, as criticism of him continued to mount, Cardinal Wuerl asked the pope to accept his resignation immediately. As of Friday, the Vatican had not announced any decision.
Cardinal Wuerl wrote Thursday that after adopting a zero-tolerance policy toward sexual abusers in 2002, “the U.S. bishops hoped, prayed and believed that we had taken definitive action to end these wrongs, including creating the norms to facilitate the removal of priests involved in abuse in an expeditious and decisive manner. Many years before as Bishop of Pittsburgh, I had taken similar steps with a constant desire to end and prevent the horror of clergy sex abuse in a timely, just, compassionate and protective way.”
He added: “Despite that desire and confidence in what we bishops around the country instituted, the processes were not flawless, and I must acknowledge the profound heartache, anger and distrust that have been expressed in the wake of the Pennsylvania grand jury report.
“For my shortcomings of the past and of the present I take full responsibility and wish that I could wipe away all the pain, confusion and disillusionment that people feel, and I wish that I could redo some decisions I have made in my three decades as a bishop and each time get it right.”
Washington Bureau Chief Tracie Mauriello: tmauriello@post-gazette.com; 703996-9292 or on Twitter @pgPoliTweets. Staff writer Peter Smith contributed.