Calls for cardinal's resignation build after archbishop's accusing letter

Cardinal Donald Wuerl has become, for the moment, the face of a ballooning crisis in the Catholic Church. Photo / The Washington Post

Catholic teachers added their voices to the escalating calls for the Archbishop of Washington, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, to resign after a one-two punch of major scandals for the church implicated the cardinal in covering up sexual abuse.

First, a sweeping investigation in Pennsylvania, documenting abuse by 300 priests over the course of 70 years, focused attention on Wuerl's mixed record of dealing with abusive priests when he was bishop of Pittsburgh.

And then Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, in a dramatic letter that is rattling the Catholic Church, included an allegation that Wuerl knew about sexual misconduct committed by his predecessor, Theodore McCarrick, but Wuerl insists he was unaware.

The misconduct in question involved young priests and seminarians, although this year McCarrick was accused of harassing two minors as well.

"We're demanding that Cardinal Wuerl step down," said Jack Devlin, one of more than 40 Catholic-school teachers who demonstrated against Wuerl outside the annual back-to-school Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. "How can I face my students, one, with this on the table and, two, when we tell them to speak up for what's right, if I don't lead by example?"

Other groups of a few dozen protesters have shown up calling for Wuerl's resignation in the past week outside his residence and outside Sunday Mass at St Matthew's Cathedral.

And Washington DC Attorney-General Karl Racine told City Paper reporter Tom Sherwood that he thinks Wuerl should step aside pending investigation. The attorney-general said on WAMU-FM that his "phone has been burning up" with Washingtonians calling for an investigation similar to Pennsylvania's inquiry into the Catholic Church.

Wuerl has defended his record in his public statements. The day that the Pennsylvania grand-jury report came out, the Archdiocese of Washington posted a new website specifically to highlight Wuerl's positive contributions towards protecting children from abuse; the website was soon taken down. After Viganò's letter, the archdiocese released a statement in which Wuerl defended himself again.

Cardinal Theodore McCarrick in 2006. Photo / Washington Post

Viganò alleges that Pope Benedict XVI imposed sanctions on McCarrick for sexual harassment in 2009 or 2010, ordering the former archbishop of Washington to a life of prayer and penance, but that Pope Francis let those sanctions slide until McCarrick's abuses came to light this year.

He mentions Wuerl in his letter, saying that the cardinal was "obviously" informed of Benedict's sanctions of McCarrick because Viganò found it "unthinkable" that the Vatican diplomat who preceded him in Washington would not have told Wuerl.

Viganò says he brought the matter up himself to Wuerl on several occasions. "I certainly didn't need to go into detail because it was immediately clear to me that he was fully aware of it," he wrote.

Catholic teachers protest outside the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, calling for Cardinal Donald Wuerl's resignation. Photo / The Washington Post

And he said about Wuerl: "His recent statements that he knew nothing about it, even though at first he cunningly referred to compensation for the two victims, are absolutely laughable. The Cardinal lies shamelessly."

Wuerl reiterated in his statement that he never heard about any sanctions from Benedict on McCarrick and that no one ever reported abuse by McCarrick to him in his years in Washington.

Instead, he suggested, Viganò's time as apostolic nuncio to Washington ought to be investigated as part of a broader church inquiry that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops has called for regarding sexual abuse.

Numerous other bishops, facing calls from concerned Catholics for criminal investigations and mass resignations in their dioceses, have responded to Viganò's letter, with some urging caution about believing the inflammatory claims and others indicating they find it credible.