PITTSBURGH (PA)
National Catholic Register
October 1, 2018
By Joan Desmond
In 2005, three New Jersey dioceses approved an $80,000 settlement resulting from allegations of sexual misconduct brought by a former priest against three men: a Pittsburgh priest, a New Jersey high school teacher and then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.
This weekend, the Washington Post reported that both the settlement document and the accuser, Robert Ciolek, point to an important, previously undisclosed fact: then-Bishop Donald Wuerl of Pittsburgh was also named in the document.
Bishop Wuerl did not sign the settlement papers, and his diocese did not contribute to it. Further, McCarrick’s name does not appear in the document.
Nevertheless, the involvement of a Pittsburgh area priest in this 2005 settlement increases the likelihood that Wuerl was informed about sexual misconduct allegations against McCarrick more than a decade ago, a direct contradiction of Wuerl’s public stance.
Ciolek said for the first time publicly that the settlement included allegations against a third person, a Pittsburgh priest Ciolek says made unwanted sexual contact with him in seminary, where the priest was a professor,” the Washington Post reported, Sept. 29.
The first page of settlement agreement lists the Diocese of Pittsburgh and Wuerl, who supervised the priest as bishop of Pittsburgh at the time, among the numerous parties to the settlement…
Is it possible that Wuerl was informed about the settlement involving one of his priests, but was not told that McCarrick was also accused by Ciolek?
Ciolek’s remarks and the settlement document underscore the vital importance of launching a formal investigation of the four dioceses where McCarrick served as a priest, bishop or archbishop, and the Church leaders who knew of his misconduct with seminarians and priests but remained silent and imposed confidentiality requirements on accusers.
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