Donald Wuerl

Donald William Wuerl (born November 12, 1940) is an American prelate, a cardinal, of the Catholic Church.

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.

Donald 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 through May 1960.

He then attended the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., where he was a Basselin Scholar at the Theological College.

Wuerl earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy in 1962 and a master's degree in 1963.

Wuerl continued his studies at the Pontifical North American College in Rome.

Wuerl was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Pittsburgh on December 17, 1966, by Bishop Francis Frederick 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.

He earned a Master of Theology degree from the Pontifical Gregorian University in 1967.

While a student in Rome, Wuerl was able to observe the proceedings of the Second Vatican Council.

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.

While in Rome.

Wuerl attended the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas Angelicum where he obtained a Doctor of Sacred Theology degree in 1974.

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.

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.)

Wuerl served as rector at Saint Paul Seminary in Pittsburgh from 1981 to 1985.

In 1982, he was appointed executive secretary to Bishop John Aloysius Marshall of Burlington, Vermont, who was leading a Vatican-mandated study of US seminaries.

On December 3, 1985, Wuerl was appointed titular bishop of Rosemarkie and as an auxiliary bishop of Seattle by Pope John Paul II.

He was elevated by Pope John Paul II to serve as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Seattle (1986–1987), and bishop of the Diocese of Pittsburgh (1988–2006).

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:

He served as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Washington from 2006 to 2018.

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.

Questions arose in 2018 of whether Wuerl had adequately dealt with allegations of sexual abuse under his jurisdiction.

A 2018 Pennsylvania grand jury report criticized how he handled sexual abuse cases during his time as bishop in Pittsburgh.

Wuerl has denied mishandling the cases.

There were additional accusations that Wuerl, despite initially denying it, was aware of sexual abuse accusations against former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, his predecessor in Washington.

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 Pope Francis appointed his successor, Archbishop Wilton Daniel Gregory, in 2019.