UNITED STATES
The Atlantic

October 12, 2018

By Emma Green

The pope has accepted the resignation of the leader of the Archdiocese of Washington. What happens next?

On Friday, Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the head of the Archdiocese of Washington. Wuerl submitted his letter of resignation three years ago, when he turned 75, as is customary for bishops. But in September, Wuerl traveled to Rome to urge the pope to finally accept it because of growing accusations over his role in handling sexual-abuse allegations in the Church.

It’s the first major American resignation to result from this round of the Church’s sex-abuse crisis. In certain ways, it is a hollow result: Wuerl was already in line to resign, and other, younger Church leaders have also been potentially implicated for their conduct. The end of Wuerl’s tenure in Washington is a symbolic step for the…