WASHINGTON D.C.
Washington Post
September 8, 2018
By Michelle Boorstein and Susan Svrluga
Facing criticism and questions about his handling of clergy sex abuse issues, Washington’s Catholic archbishop, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, has announced plans to launch a six-week-long “Season of Healing” beginning Friday.
Wuerl relayed the plan, for the region’s 139 parishes holding special prayer services, in a letter to his priests on Thursday. It was distributed via an Internet mailing list for priests of the archdiocese, and someone close to a priest provided a copy to The Washington Post.
Catholics are closely watching Wuerl’s actions and words after the release of an explosive grand jury report in Pennsylvania that alleges that over seven decades more than 1,000 children had been abused by priests in six dioceses, including the Diocese of Pittsburgh. Wuerl led that diocese for 18 years before coming to Washington in 2006. The report shows that in some instances Wuerl went well beyond the norm in trying to push out predators but that in others he allowed an abuser to remain in ministry.
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