Washington cardinal faces criticism
Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Washington, is facing a storm of criticism and calls for his resignation after becoming entangled in two major sexual abuse scandals roiling the church that he has served since 1966.
A scathing grand jury report this week on rampant abuse in six Pennsylvania dioceses accused Wuerl of helping to protect some child-molesting priests while he was bishop of Pittsburgh from 1988 to 2006.
At the same time, Wuerl is facing widespread skepticism over his recent insistence that he knew nothing about years of alleged sexual misconduct by former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, his predecessor in the nation’s capital.
The Washington Archdiocese, home to more than 630,000 Catholics, is considered an important power center for the church in the U.S., and Wuerl has been ranked by commentators as one of the most influential of the 10 active American cardinals.
The two scandals represent a stunning turn for the 77-year-old leader, who over the decades earned the respect of fellow bishops across the U.S. and prided himself in taking tough steps to combat clergy sex abuse during his 18 years in Pittsburgh.
Some conservative Catholics are calling for his resignation or ouster, Of his actions while archbishop in Pittsburgh, Archbishop Donald Wuerl said: “We showed pastoral concern by reaching out to victims and their families, while reporting allegations to the authorities so they could investigate crimes.” and a petition is circulating to remove his name from a parochial high school in suburban Pittsburgh.
Wuerl has said he has no plans to resign. He apologized this week for the damage inflicted on the victims but also defended his actions in Pennsylvania.
“The Diocese worked to meet or exceed the requirements of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the reporting requirements of Pennsylvania law,” Wuerl said. “We showed pastoral concern by reaching out to victims and their families, while reporting allegations to the authorities so they could investigate crimes.”
The Vatican on Thursday issued its first statement on the grand jury report, expressing “shame and sorrow” while also suggesting that reforms undertaken by U.S. Catholic leaders had sharply reduced the prevalence of clergy sex abuse since 2002. The statement did not mention Wuerl but it called the abuse “criminally and morally reprehensible” and said Pope Francis wants to eradicate “this tragic horror.”
Vatican spokesman Greg Burke sought to assure victims that “the pope is on their side.”
Separately, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops announced an investigation into the McCarrick scandal and said it would invite the Vatican to participate.
Wuerl has not been charged with any wrongdoing but is named numerous times in the grand jury report, which details instances in which he allowed priests accused of misconduct to be reassigned or reinstated.
In one case, Wuerl — acting on doctors’ recommendation — enabled priest William O’Malley to return to active ministry in 1998 despite allegations of abuse lodged against him and his own admission that he was sexually interested in adolescents. Years later, according to the report, six more people alleged they had been sexually assaulted by O’Malley, in some cases after he had been reinstated.