12 Sep 2018

Washington’s Cardinal Donald Wuerl announced his upcoming resignation Tuesday, saying he intends to travel to Rome to discuss with Pope Francis his departure from the archdiocese he currently leads.

“I intend, in the very near future, to go to Rome to meet with out Holy Father about the resignation I presented nearly three years ago,” Wuerl explained in a letter to the priests of the archdiocese.

The cardinal said that the decision to remove himself from his leadership role came as fruit of discernment regarding “the best course of action for me to pursue as we face new revelations of the extent of the horror of the clergy abuse of children and the failures in episcopal oversight.”

Wuerl had been implicated in a recent Pennsylvania grand jury report on clergy sexual abuse, which claimed that the cardinal had approved transfers for abusing priests instead of removing them from ministry. It also alleged that he concealed information when priests were reported to law enforcement and oversaw insufficient church investigations into abuse.