Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the
Roman Catholic archbishop of Washington under fire for alleged
inaction over clerical sex abuse, has sent a letter to his
priests saying he will discuss his resignation with Pope Francis
in Rome soon.
The news came as Francis on Wednesday called the world's
bishops' heads to a conference in the Vatican next February on
preventing clerical sex abuse.
Wuerl is one of the high-ranking clerics near Pope Francis
accused in a letter by former Washington nuncio Carlo Maria
Viganò.
Since mid-August, the former archbishop of Pittsburg Wuerl
has been at the center of heated debate calling for him to
resign after accounts of his allowing several priests accused of
sexually abusing children to remain in ministry.
The accounts were included in a grand jury report last month
in Pennsylvania that accused over 300 priests of abuse.
Alongside other US-based allies of the Pope, Wuerl has been
accused of covering up the sexual abuse of children committed by
his predecessor in the capital, Theodore McCarrick.
Close to both the former and the present popes, 77-year-old
Wuerl had offered to leave the ministry when he turned 75 due to
age limits but Pope Francis had opted to keep him in his
position.
The cardinal had in recent days visited the Vatican to
discuss the situation with the Pope, who told him to go back to
Washington to assess the issue with his priests.
Viganò's letter calling for the pope to resign has sparked a
fresh row between conservatives and liberals in the Church.
The pope meanwhile on Wednesday called the heads of the
world's bishops' conferences to a meeting in the Vatican from
February 21 to 24, to "discuss the prevention of abuse on minors
and vulnerable adults", the deputy head of the Vatican press
office, Paloma Garcia Ovejero, said, reading a statement from
the Council of Cardinals (C9).
The pope's move comes amid a row sparked by Viganò's claim
that Francis and top bishops covered for McCarrick.
Viganò said the pope should resign for allegedly not
implementing alleged sanctions on the former cardinal.
The pope has not dignified Viganò's charges with a denial but
is said to be "embittered" by them.
The Church has been roiled by abuse scandals for decades, the
latest in Pennsylvania where over 1,000 minors were allegedly
raped by 300 priests over the course of 70 years.
Msgr Georg Gaenswein, the personal secretary of former pope
Benedict XVI, on Tuesday compared the crisis the Catholic Church
is enduring due to sex abuse scandals to the impact of the
September 11 terrorist attacks.
"Today is September 11, the date of an apocalyptic disaster
and the Church is looking at its own September 11, full of
dismay, above all, following the Pennsylvania grand jury
report," Gaenswein said during an encounter at the Lower House.
"This catastrophe of ours is linked to many days and years
and to countless victims".
Gaenswein said that during his papacy, Benedict repeatedly
denounced the gravity of paedophilia, calling it an attack on
the Church from within.
On Monday Pope Francis' nine top cardinal advisers, the C9,
said the Holy See was preparing the "necessary clarifications"
about Viganò's charges in the McCarrick affair.
On September 3 Francis called for silence and prayer as "some
people seek only scandal".
He did not refer to the Viganò scandal directly but said the
only way forward was one of "prayer and silence".
Some people, he said, "seek only scandal, they seek only
division".
Gaenswein has said Benedict has not confirmed the content of
the letter from Viganò saying Francis covered up sex crimes by
McCarrick and should resign.
Gaenswein called a report that Benedict had backed Viganò
"fake news, a lie".
He said the pope emeritus had not commented on the letter and
would not do so in future either.
Pope Francis is "embittered" by Viganò's letter, Vaticanm
sources told ANSA earlier this month
Viganò said in the document that Francis had protected
McCarrick, who is accused of having sex with adult seminarians
and groping a 17-year-old boy.
The pope is not considering resigning, however, the sources
said.
Viganò said he told Francis about McCarrick in 2013, saying
the prelate had been sanctioned by Benedict, but Francis did
nothing about it.
Francis has said he will not respond to Viganò's charges and
has said journalists should be able to work out the truth in the
affair.
The case has pitted conservative critics of Francis against
progressive supporters who say the traditionalists are
"weaponising" child abuse to attack the pope's mercy-over-morals
approach.
Viganò also claimed there was a powerful gay lobby in the
Church he blamed for the many scandals on abuse and cover-ups,
naming names.
Viganò, who was previously involved in the Vatileaks case,
has said that he was not pursuing a vendetta for having been
replaced as nuncio to the US in 2016, or previously losing his
place in the Vatican government.
"I have never had feelings of revenge or rancour in all these
years," he said.
He denied being a "poison-pen letter writer", saying "I am
accustomed to doing things in the light of day."
Viganò is one of the conservatives who have criticised
Francis for opening up to gays and remarried divorcés while
denouncing 'clericalism', unfettered capitalism and climate
change, among other liberal moves.
The minors' protection board of the Italian Bishops
Conference (CEI) on Tuesday saw eye to eye with a corresponding
Vatican panel on a series of moves to stop clerical sex abuse of
kids, a CEI spokesman said Wednesday.
Listening to victims, new commitments to education, training
and communication, and drafting new guidelines on protecting
minors and vulnerable adults were among the moves discussed,
said Father Ivan Maffeis.
He called the joint work "substantive collaboration which
aims above all at the elaboration of proposals, initiatives and
instruments of prevention to offer dioceses.
"So as not to stop at condemning the abuse and to promote a
culture of the person and their dignity".
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