PHILADELPHIA (PA)
KYW Newsradio
October 12, 2018
By Steve Tawa
“We just kept hearing the same excuses to cover up still for the Catholic Church.”
Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the embattled arch bishop of Washington, D.C. It comes after he was named in a Pennsylvania grand jury report on priest sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church released in August.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said it’s unacceptable that Wuerl participated in and oversaw systematic clergy abuse when he was bishop overseeing the Pittsburgh Diocese. Shapiro said the cardinal is able to retire seemingly with no consequences for actions documented in the grand jury report and in the church’s own secret archives.
Included in that grand jury report are four key recommended reforms, one of which is the elimination of the criminal statute of limitations for abusing children. Already 39 states have done so.
Shapiro, two suburban district attorneys, and survivors of clergy sexual abuse all gathered in Montgomery County on Friday to put pressure on the state Senate to act on statute of limitations reforms next week.
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