Donald Wuerl to succeed McCarrick as DC archbishop.

[CBHagman]

We got one! Pope Benedict has named Donald W. Wuerl, currently the bishop of Pittsburgh, as our new archbishop.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/16/AR2006051600288.html

"Pope Benedict XVI named Bishop Donald W. Wuerl of Pittsburgh yesterday to succeed the retiring Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick as archbishop of Washington, choosing an articulate, affable and politically moderate churchman to fill one of the highest-profile pulpits in the nation.

"Like McCarrick, Wuerl has strongly proclaimed the Catholic Church's teachings against abortion, birth control and euthanasia but has not sought to deny Communion to Catholic politicians who take a different position.

"Wuerl, 65, established a record of removing sexual abusers from the priesthood during his 18 years running the Pittsburgh diocese. He fought within the Church's courts in the early 1990s to establish a bishop's authority to remove a suspected pedophile from ministry. He also proved to be a tough-minded administrator, closing 100 underpopulated parishes in Pittsburgh and slashing expenses to eliminate a $2 million deficit."

[JohnKleeb]

1. A good sucessor to a good man

Wuerl was Bishop of the Burgh during the presidential campaign and he's the one who had no problems with Kerry receiving communion. He's also tough on pedophile priests and he's strongly committed to the church's views. I read the WaPo article today. I think Bishop Wuerl will be as good sa Cardinal McCarrick has been.

[AngryOldDem]

2. Agreed n/t

[JohnKleeb]

3. Thanks he seems like a good guy

DC archdiocese was really lucky to have Cardinal McCarrick and now Bishop Wuerl. He's got a huge interesting in international affairs I read too so I hope he makes a strong committment to helping the poor around the world.

[UrbScotty]

4. Great to hear!

Congratulations to Archbishop-elect Wuerl!

[JohnKleeb]

5. Yeah seems we got lucky

Well not me persay since I am not in the DC archdiocese technically but Cardinal McCarrick really was a great guy. He was at the Save Darfur Rally I went to in DC a few weeks back.

[tjwmason]

6. Does D.C. have any precedence among American Bishops?

I know that here the Archbishop of Westminster (complex reasons why it's not of London) is the most senior - and thus the one that the media go to for comment. Is the same true of D.C.? - I'm guessing that it's not historically a big Catholic city.

[regnaD kciN]

7. Oh, LOVELY...

+Weurl was the Vatican stooge (and I do not use that term lightly) sent by +Ratzinger to keep an eye on the "notoriously liberal" (because of his criticism of the Reagan administration and his support for the "nuclear freeze" movement) Archbishop Hunthausen of Seattle in the mid-'80s.

As it turned out, +Weurl was more than a Vatican observer -- shortly after he was in place, it was revealed that he was empowered by Rome to make all decisions for the archdiocese, placing +Hunthausen in a powerless figurehead role.

Matters came to a head in (I believe) 1986, when +Weurl, with the support of the Vatican overruling the opposition of +Hunthausen, issued a pastoral letter ordering all Roman Catholics in Washington to vote against a gay-rights referendum. This stirred enough outrage that large numbers of Seattle-area Roman Catholics went into open revolt, including witholding their contributions to the Church. After some months of this controversy, the Vatican backtracked, sent +Weurl to Pittsburgh, and allowed +Hunthausen to select his own auxiliary bishop.

Maybe +Weurl has changed since then, but I will always have bad feelings for him based on what he did here in Seattle.