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Prior to his current role as archbishop of Washington, Wuerl was
bishop of Pittsburgh from 1988 to 2006. The grand jury report
did not accuse him of personally sexually abusing children.
The Pittsburgh diocese said in a statement that following the
release of the report, Wuerl asked last week for his name to be
removed from Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic High School, saying
he did not want to be a distraction. The school has been renamed
North Catholic High School.
A two-year investigation into abuse in Pennsylvania found
evidence that at least 1,000 people, mostly children, had been
sexually abused by some 300 clergymen during the past 70 years.
The report said the numbers of actual victims and abusers could
be much higher.
The report found that Wuerl notified the Vatican in 1989 of
several priests who had been accused of sexually abusing
children but that over subsequent years he granted requests by
some to be reassigned to other parishes or to retire early, and
in one case approved a loan to assist one such priest with
personal debts.
On Saturday, Wuerl canceled a planned speech at this week's
World Meeting of Families in Dublin, the second high-ranking
U.S. Church official to do so.
Last week's report was the most wide-ranging U.S. investigation
into sexual abuse by priests since the scandal burst into the
public eye in Boston in 2002.
(Reporting by Scott Malone in Boston; Editing by David Gregorio
and Frances Kerry)
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