Pope Francis "reluctantly" accepts the resignation of Cardinal Donad Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington

As reported by Reuters, October 12, 2018:

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Cardinal Donald Wuerl as archbishop of Washington, DC, the Vatican said on Friday, making him one of the most senior Catholic figures to step down in a worldwide sexual abuse crisis.

Cardinal Wuerl (77), who was bishop of Pittsburgh between 1988 and 2006, has been under scrutiny over his handling of sexual abuse cases during that period. He keeps the title of cardinal.

In a letter by the pope released in Washington, the pope indicated he accepted the resignation reluctantly and at Wuerl’s insistence. He asked Wuerl to stay on as administrator until another archbishop could be appointed.

Cardinal Wuerl has been under fire since the release in August of a US grand jury report on sexual abuse found evidence that at least 1,000 people, mostly children, had been sexually abused by some 300 clergymen over the course of 70 years. The report covered six diocese in Pennsylvania, including Pittsburgh when it was led by Wuerl.

He has also been accused of knowing about sexual misconduct by his predecessor in Washington, ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick.

Last August, Cardinal Wuerl cancelled a trip to Dublin where he was to deliver the keynote address at a World Meeting of Families pastoral congress. His topic was “The Welfare of the Family is Decisive for the Future of the World”.

Cardinal Wuerl has defended his overall record in Pittsburgh. He also has denied knowing that McCarrick, once one of the US church’s most prominent figures, had forced male adult seminarians to have sex with him years ago.

In July McCarrick became the first cardinal in about 100 years to be stripped of his red hat and title of “eminence”.

Francis ordered McCarrick to retire to a life of prayer and penitence after American church officials said as part of a separate investigation that allegations that McCarrick had sexually abused a 16-year-old boy almost 50 years ago were credible and substantiated.

As reported by Patsy McGarry of the Irish Times, October 12, 2018:

Cardinal Donald Wuerl was heavily criticised in a US grand jury report over his handling of child sexual abuse allegations while a bishop of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1988 to 2006.

Following the publication of the Pennsylvania grand jury report last August, he withdrew from a scheduled appearance at the World Meeting of Families in Dublin.

Cardinal Wuerl was due to give the keynote address on “The Welfare of the Family is Decisive for the Future of the World,” on Wednesday, August 22nd.

The report of the grand jury, published on August 14th, found “wholesale institutional failure that endangered the welfare of children” in Pittsburgh. It faulted Cardinal Wuer for what it said was his role in the concealment of sex abuse.

The report chose three examples from cases involving 99 abusive priests there as “a window into the conduct” of bishops “and the crimes they permitted to occur on their watch”.

The cases concerned Fr Ernest Paone, Fr George Zirwas, and Fr Richard Zula. All three involved Cardinal Wuerl.

Up to 1988, when Cardinal Wuerl became bishop of Pittsburgh, Paone continued in ministry with approval from the diocese “in spite of its knowledge he was a child molester,” the grand jury found.

This continued when then-Bishop Wuerl took over. In 1991 Bishop Wuerl granted Paone’s request to serve in the diocese of Reno-Las Vegas.

Following another abuse complaint against the priest in 1994, he was sent for treatment.

In February 2003, Bishop Wuerl accepted the priest’s resignation from ministry. As the grand jury report put it: “Approximately 41 years after the diocese learned that Paone was sexually assaulting children, he was finally retired from active ministry.”