The Vatican names a new archbishop of Washington to succeed Cardinal Donald Wuerl.
Wilton Gregory, then president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, listens to questions during a news conference in 2003 in St. Louis, Missouri.
The previous two Washington archbishops have found themselves, in different ways, at the center of the Roman Catholic Church’s renewed crisis over clerical sexual abuse and the failure of higher-ups to stop it. Theodore McCarrick, who served as archbishop of Washington from 2001 to 2006, was forced to step down from the College of Cardinals last summer amid accusations that he had abused minors and young adults earlier in his career.
When McCarrick was removed from ministry last year, Gregory said that he “never knew or suspected the hidden side of a man whose admired public persona concealed that of a violator of foundational Christian morality and of young people who trusted him.”His archdiocese was not ahead on the issue of releasing names of accused priests. The Atlanta archdiocese only recently released the names of 15 priests and other religious figures accused of sexual abuse of a minor.
In a statement released last week, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, noted that Gregory has a reputation as a reformer. “In truth,” SNAP said, “his track record on abuse is poor.” In a letter to priests in the Washington archdiocese, Wuerl subsequently apologized and said it was “never the intention to provide false information.” Wuerl wrote that he had forgotten that he was told in 2004 about the complaint against McCarrick.
“Public credibility is a huge issue” for the new archbishop, said one Catholic who has worked in D.C. Catholic life for many years but didn’t want to be named for fear of looking like they were piling on. “The moral voice of the church is really diminished. The next person has to focus on rebuilding trust.”
Gregory also faced pressure last year when an online petition was started with the goal of removing a pastor who counseled survivors of sexual abuse and who was described as being pro-LGBT. Soon after, Gregory was quoted in the Atlanta-Journal Constitution as defending the pastor, saying he was “following the admonition of Pope Francis to accompany people on the periphery of society.”
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