Donald Wuerl facts for kids
Quick facts for kids His Eminence Donald William Wuerl |
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| Cardinal, Archbishop Emeritus of Washington |
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Wuerl in 2015
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| Archdiocese | Washington |
| Appointed | May 16, 2006 |
| Enthroned | June 22, 2006 |
| Predecessor | Theodore McCarrick |
| Successor | Wilton Daniel Gregory |
| Other posts | Cardinal-Priest of San Pietro in Vincoli Chancellor of the Catholic University of America |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | December 17, 1966 |
| Consecration | January 6, 1986 by John Paul II, Agostino Casaroli, and Bernardin Gantin |
| Created Cardinal | November 20, 2010 |
| Rank | Cardinal-Priest |
| Personal details | |
| Birth name | Donald William Wuerl |
| Born | November 12, 1940 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Denomination | Catholic Church |
| Previous post |
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| Motto | Thy kingdom come |
| Styles of Donald William Wuerl |
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| Reference style |
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| Spoken style | Your Eminence |
| Informal style | Cardinal |
Donald William Wuerl (born November 12, 1940) is an American prelate, a cardinal, of the Catholic Church. He served as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Washington in the District of Columbia and Southern Maryland from 2006 to 2018.
Wuerl was elevated by Pope John Paul II to serve as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Seattle in Washington State (1986 to 1987), and as bishop of the Diocese of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania (1988 to 2006). Pope Benedict XVI named Wuerl as archbishop of Washington and made him a cardinal in 2010.
Wuerl is widely viewed as a theological moderate, and is well known in the church for his ability to forge consensus between different factions. ..... Wuerl has denied mishandling the cases.
..... On October 12, 2018, Pope Francis accepted Wuerl's resignation as archbishop of Washington. Wuerl remained in charge of the archdiocese as its apostolic administrator until Francis appointed his successor, Archbishop Wilton Gregory, in 2019.
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Early life and education
Donald Wuerl was born on November 12, 1940, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was the second of four children of Francis and Mary Anna (née Schiffauer) Wuerl. He has two brothers, Wayne and Dennis, and a sister, Carol. Wuerl's father worked nights weighing freight cars for the Pennsylvania Railroad, and served in the US Navy during World War II. His mother died in 1944 and his father married Kathryn Cavanaugh in 1946. Donal Wuerl expressed an interest in becoming a priest early in life. He even held pretend masses for his brothers and sisters at home.
Wuerl received his early education at the parochial school of St. Mary of the Mount Parish in the Mount Washington neighborhood of Pittsburgh, graduating in 1958. He attended St. Gregory Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio for his freshman and sophomore years of college from September 1958 thru May 1960. He then attended the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., where he was a Basselin Scholar at the Theological College, earning a Bachelor of Philosophy degree (1962) and a Master of Philosophy degree (1963) in philosophy.
Wuerl continued his studies at the Pontifical North American College in Rome. He earned a Master of Theology degree from the Pontifical Gregorian University in 1967. After ordination, Wuerl was sent to Rome for further theological study. He is an alumnus of the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas Angelicum where he obtained a Doctor of Sacred Theology degree in 1974.
While a student in Rome, Wuerl had the chance to observe the proceedings of the Second Vatican Council.
Early career
Wuerl was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Pittsburgh on December 17, 1966 by Bishop Francis Reh. After his ordination, Wuerl was assigned as assistant pastor at St. Rosalia Parish in Pittsburgh's Greenfield neighborhood and as priest-secretary to Bishop John Wright. After Wright was elevated to cardinal in 1969, Wuerl became his full-time priest-secretary in Vatican City from 1969 until Wright's death in 1979. Because Wright was recovering from surgery and confined to a wheelchair, Wuerl, as Wright's priest-secretary, was one of three non-cardinals permitted inside the conclave that selected Karol Wojtyla as Pope John Paul II in 1978. (Wright had missed the first of the two 1978 conclaves.)
In 1976, Wuerl co-wrote with Thomas Comerford Lawler and Ronald David Lawler a catechism for adults, The Teaching of Christ. It has been reprinted several times and has been widely translated.
Wuerl served as rector at Saint Paul Seminary in Pittsburgh from 1981 to 1985. In 1982, he was appointed executive secretary to Bishop John Marshall of Burlington, Vermont, who was leading a Vatican-mandated study of US seminaries.
Episcopal career
Auxiliary Bishop of Seattle
On December 3, 1985, Wuerl was appointed titular bishop of Rosemarkie and as an auxiliary bishop of Seattle by Pope John Paul II. Wuerl was consecrated bishop on January 6, 1986, at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome by the pope.
As auxiliary bishop, Wuerl and Seattle Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen worked in adjoining offices without conflict for several months. However, in May 1986, the two men found themselves with opposing positions on proposed state legislation to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in employment. At that point, Hunthausen learned for the first time that the Vatican had charged Wuerl with responsibility — "complete and final decision-making power" — for several key areas normally within the Archbishop's control:
- worship and liturgy;
- the archdiocesan tribunal, which considers requests for marriage annulment; seminarians, priestly formation and laicized priests;
- moral issues
- health care and ministry to LGBTQ people.
Hunthausen revealed the division of authority between him and Wuerl in September 1986. While some chancery officials expressed support for Wuerl, some questioned his role and saw little impact on the archdiocese a year after his appointment. In November, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops expressed its objections to the Vatican's restrictions on Hunthausen.
In February 1987, the Vatican formed a commission of US bishops, headed by Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, to investigate the situation between Wuerl and Hunthausen in Seattle. Wuerl met privately with John Paul II, but declined to comment on the meeting, saying "I'm just going to wait and see what the commission does". In May 1987, following the commission review, John Paul II restored Hunthausen's full authority as bishop and appointed then Bishop Thomas Joseph Murphy as coadjutor bishop to assist him.
Wuerl resigned as auxiliary bishop of Seattle on May 26, 1987. He later said that remaining in Seattle became "unworkable", with many parishioners blaming him for the conflict with Hunthausen. Wuerl moved to a Pittsburgh suburb to await his next appointment by the Vatican. Wuerl and Hunthausen eventually became friends, with Wuerl saying that Hunthausen taught him a great deal about the work of being a bishop.
Bishop of Pittsburgh
Wuerl was appointed as the eleventh bishop of Pittsburgh on February 12, 1988, by John Paul II. He was installed on March 25, 1988. One of the biggest problems facing the diocese was the financial losses of its parish schools. The diocese had built many parishes during the era when Catholic immigrants were swelling the population of Pittsburgh to work in the steel mills. It established the parishes along ethnic lines so that parishioners could attend services in their native languages and maintain their national traditions. This resulted in the diocese having as many as eight parishes within blocks of each other. After World War II, the diocese made a major effort to build a school for every parish. These schools were usually staffed by nuns who were given nominal compensation.
The economics of the Pittsburgh Catholic schools began to break down in the 1970s. First, the Baby Boom period had subsided, resulting in a reduction in the student population. Second, Catholics became less likely to send their children to Catholic schools. Third, in response to the Second Vatican Council, many sisters began choosing missions unrelated to education. To replace these nuns in schools, the diocese had to hire more lay teachers with higher salaries.
Wuerl asked his committee of lay advisors to address the debt and deficit spending associated with Catholic education in Pittsburgh. In 1988, the committee determined that 48 of 333 parishes owed a total of $5.6 million. The diocese announced a rescue plan in February 1989, with the diocese forgiving $1.1 million loaned to the parishes for insurance along with the Parish Share Program. In addition, the diocese promised low-interest loans to parishes to refinance their other obligations. Despite the financial condition of the diocese, Wuerl decided to expand its health services. He worked with hospitals and community groups to create a group home for people with HIV/AIDS. In 2003, Wuerl conducted a $2.5 million fundraising campaign to create the Catholic Charities Free Health Care Center, serving the uninsured working poor.
In 1989, Wuerl merged Sacred Heart and St. Paul Cathedral High Schools to establish Oakland Catholic High School, using the St. Paul building in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh .
Wuerl launched and hosted a television program, The Teaching of Christ, in 1990. He taught at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh as a distinguished service professor. Wuerl in 1999 became a chaplain for the Order of Malta, Federal Association USA, attached to the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Wuerl also wrote regular columns in Columbia, the major publication of the Knights of Columbus in the United States.
In March 1994, Wuerl closed 73 diocesan buildings, including 37 churches, and reduced the number of parishes from 331 to 117 through mergers. The diocese was operating 214 parishes when Wuerl left in June 2006 to become archbishop of Washington. Wuerl's plan, The Parish Reorganization and Revitalization Project, was used as a model for other dioceses seeking parish suppression.
From 1994 until 2003, as bishop of Pittsburgh, Wuerl served as a member of the board of governors of the Pontifical North American College in Rome (chair, 1998 to 1999), representing the Pennsylvania-New Jersey Region (Region III) of the USCCB. In 2008, as archbishop of Washington he was again elected to the college's board of governors, this time representing the Washington DC-Delaware-Maryland-Virginia-West Virginia region of the conference (Region IV).
Under Wuerl, the diocese began to emphasize placing women into positions of responsibility and authority.
- Rosemarie Cibik, a former superintendent of public instruction, was appointed as the first lay superintendent of Catholic schools in Pittsburgh.
- Rita Joyce, a canon and civil lawyer, became the first lay member of the diocesan marriage tribunal.
- Sister Margaret Hannan was appointed as associate general secretary of the diocese. She later became chancellor, the highest canonical post that for a lay person.
Archbishop of Washington
Pope Benedict XVI appointed Wuerl as archbishop of Washington on May 16, 2006. He was installed on June 22, 2006, at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. and received the pallium from Pope Benedict XVI on June 29, 2006. In April 2008, Wuerl hosted the apostolic visit of Benedict XVI to the District of Columbia.
Wuerl served as chair of the board of directors of the National Catholic Educational Association starting in December 12, 2005, and was also chancellor of The Catholic University of America. In September 2010, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith named Wuerl as its delegate in the United States for facilitating the implementation of the apostolic constitution Anglicanorum coetibus. The constitution was issued by Benedict XVI in November 2009 for Anglicans who wished to convert to Catholicism. Wuerl also headed the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) ad hoc committee to support that implementation.
Cardinal
On November 20, 2010, Benedict XVI elevated Wuerl to the College of Cardinals in a public consistory held at Saint Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. He was created Cardinal-Priest of S. Pietro in Vincoli. Benedict XVI later appointed Wuerl to the following posts:
- Member of the Congregation for the Clergy and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (December 2010)
- Relator-general (recording secretary) of the 2012 World Synod of Bishops meeting on the New Evangelization (October 24, 2011)
- Member of the Pontifical Council for Culture for a five-year renewable term (December 10, 2011)
- Member of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (April 21, 2012)
In 2011, Wuerl served on a committee of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops that criticized the American Catholic theologian Elizabeth Johnson. The bishops stated that her popular 2007 book, Quest for the Living God, contravened Catholic doctrine in several areas. The committee itself faced criticism for not following accepted protocols for dealing with conflicts with theologians. Wuerl later stated that he had offered to meet with Johnson regarding the book, but she did not respond to his invitations.
Wuerl was a cardinal elector who participated in the 2013 papal conclave that elected Pope Francis. Francis appointed Wuerl to the Congregation for Bishops (December 16, 2013).
Public positions
Reverend Thomas J. Reese, a Jesuit priest and journalist, said in 2006 that "[Wuerl is] quite orthodox theologically, but he doesn't like to play cop; he's not an authoritarian person." In August 2018, Reese described him as an ideological moderate with regard to Catholic theological disputes, stating, "He's not an old leftie, he's not a right-wing culture warrior. ... He was totally enthusiastic about John Paul II, and then Pope Benedict, and now he's totally enthusiastic about Pope Francis. There are not many people in the church who are totally enthusiastic about all three of them."
Journalist John L. Allen Jr. in December 2018 said that Wuerl "was able to forge behind-the-scenes consensus because he was trusted by virtually all parties as someone who wouldn't embarrass them in public, and because he was seen as at least somewhat sympathetic to their points of view."
LGBTQ rights
In 2009, the Council of the District of Columbia began consideration of a bill giving certain rights to individuals in same-sex marriages. The archdiocese pressed the council to include so-called religious liberty provisions to protect the archdiocese's ability to provide social services (e.g. adoption services) in accordance with Catholic teaching on marriage. On November 12, 2009, The Washington Post characterized the archdiocese as delivering an "ultimatum" to the city. An article the same day in The New York Times characterize the archdiocese as making a "threat". In a November 22 reply to the Post, Wuerl stated that there was "no threat or ultimatum to end services, just a simple recognition that the new requirements by the city for religious organizations to recognize same-sex marriages in their policies could restrict our ability to provide the same level of services as we do now."
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In December 2009, on the day that the council passed the same-sex marriage bill, Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, a same-sex marriage advocacy organization, wrote that Wuerl had "refused to alter his official position" to reduce social services in the archdiocese. On the same day the archdiocese, though expressing its view that the bill did not adequately protect religious liberty, nonetheless affirmed its commitment to serving the needs of the poor and its hope for "working in partnership with the District of Columbia consistent with the mission of the Catholic Church."
In February 2010 shortly before the law took effect, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington ended its foster care and public adoption programs rather than comply with the law's requirement that it license same-sex couples for the program. The agency also modified its employee health care benefits to avoid having to extend coverage to same-sex couples.
Retirement as Archbishop of Washington
Wuerl submitted a letter of resignation in 2015, as is standard practice for any bishop who turns 75. On October 12, 2018, Pope Francis accepted Wuerl's resignation.
Wuerl planned to resign in September and meet with Pope Francis before doing so. This did not happen and the Pope accepted his resignation via a letter. The letter said that Wuerl had sent a new letter to the Pope requesting that he accept his resignation on September 21. Francis appointed him to serve as apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., until his successor was appointed. Wuerl departed as apostolic administrator when Wilton Gregory was installed as Archbishop on May 21, 2019. Though he stepped down, Wuerl has continued to receive financial compensation from the Archdiocese of Washington. In 2020, over $2 million was designated for "continuing ministry activities for [the] Archbishop Emeritus."
Pope Francis praised Wuerl as a "model bishop" and his reply to the resignation offered this comment: "You have sufficient elements to justify your actions and distinguish between what it means to cover up crimes or not to deal with problems, and to commit some mistakes." A New York Times editorial criticized Pope Francis for the way he characterized Wuerl's resignation and handling of abuse cases. Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro criticized the Pope's decision to allow Wuerl to resign without facing stronger consequences.
On October 12, Wuerl wrote to members of the archdiocese and said, "I am sorry and ask for healing for all of those who were so deeply wounded at the hands of the Church's ministers. I also beg forgiveness on behalf of Church leadership from the victims who were again wounded when they saw these priests and bishops both moved and promoted."
Selected writings
- The Forty Martyrs: New Saints of England and Wales (Huntington: Our Sunday Visitor, 1971)
- Fathers of the Church (Huntington: Our Sunday Visitor, 1975)
- The Catholic Priesthood Today (Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1976)
- The Teaching of Christ: A Catholic Catechism for Adults (Huntington: Our Sunday Visitor, 1976), co-author
- A Visit to the Vatican: For Young People (Boston: St. Paul Editions, 1981)
- The Gift of Faith: A Question and Answer Version of The Teaching of Christ (Huntington: Our Sunday Visitor, 2001)
- The Catholic Way: Faith for Living Today (New York: Doubleday, 2001)
- The Sacraments: A Continuing Encounter with Christ (Our Sunday Visitor, 2010)
- The Mass: The Glory, The Mystery, The Tradition (New York: Doubleday, 2011)
- The Gift of Blessed John Paul II (Frederick, MD: The Word Among Us Press, 2011)
- Seek First the Kingdom: Challenging the Culture by Living Our Faith (Huntington: Our Sunday Visitor, 2011)
- Faith That Transforms Us: Reflections on the Creed (Frederick, MD: The Word Among Us Press, 2013)
- New Evangelization: Passing on the Catholic Faith Today (Our Sunday Visitor, 2013)
- The Church: Unlocking the Secrets to the Places Catholics Call Home (Image, 2013)
- The Light is On For You: The Life-Changing Power of Confession (Frederick, MD: The Word Among Us Press, 2014)
- The Feasts: How the Church Year Forms Us as Catholics (Image: 2014)
- Open to the Holy Spirit: Living the Gospel with Wisdom (Our Sunday Visitor, 2014)
- The Marriage God Wants For You (Frederick, MD: The Word Among Us Press, 2015)
- To the Martyrs: A Reflection on the Supreme Christian Witness (Emmaus Road Publishing, 2015)
- Ways to Pray: Growing Closer to God (Our Sunday Visitor, 2015)
Pastoral letters as Archbishop of Washington
- "Being Catholic Today: Catholic Identity in an Age of Challenge" (So Católico Hoy: Identidad católica en una época de desafíos ), May 24, 2015
- "Manifesting the Kingdom: A Pastoral Letter on the First Synod of the Archdiocese of Washington" (La Manifestación del Reino ), June 8, 2014
- The Church, Our Spiritual Home (La Iglesia, Nuestro Hogar Espiritual ), September 14, 2012
- "Disciples of the Lord: Sharing the Vision" , August 23, 2010
- "God's Mercy and Loving Presence" (La Misericordia y la Amorosa Presencia de Dios ), January 3, 2010
- "Belonging to God's Family" (Pertenciendo a la Familia de Dios ), January 25, 2009
- "Catholic Education: Looking to the Future with Confidence" , September 14, 2008
- "Reflections on God's Mercy And Our Forgiveness" (Reflexiones sobre la Misericordia de Dios y el Perdón ), January 1, 2008
- "God's Mercy and the Sacrament of Penance" (La Misericordia de Dios y el Sacramento de la Penitencia ), January 8, 2007
See also
In Spanish: Donald Wuerl para niños
In Spanish: Donald Wuerl para niños
- Catholic Church hierarchy
- Catholic Church in the United States
- Historical list of the Catholic bishops of the United States
- List of Catholic bishops of the United States
- Lists of patriarchs, archbishops, and bishops
