Cardinal Donald Wuerl has withdrawn from the World Meeting of Families in Dublin.
The Irish Times has confirmed that the 77 year old Cardinal-archbishop of Washington, D.C., who was scheduled to give a keynote talk Wednesday titled "The Welfare of the Family is Decisive for the Future of the World," will not be attending the event.
The Cardinal offered no reason for his withdrawal.
The news followed one day after his publisher announced it was cancelling plans to publish the Cardinal's forthcoming book, What Do You Want to Know?
Cardinal Wuerl has come under withering criticism after the Pennsylvania grand jury report, released Tuesday, exposed his practice of reassigning and transferring homosexual predator Priests when he was Bishop of Pittsburgh from 1988–2006.
One Priest, Father George Zirwas, who was involved in a child porn ring that involved sadomasochistic acts performed on teen altar boys plied with drugs and alcohol and passed around among four Pittsburgh Priests for sex, is alleged to have been given money in 1996 in exchange for his silence on Priestly criminal sex abuse.
Two years ago, Cardinal Wuerl submitted his letter of resignation to the Pope as mandated to do so by Church law.
In the curious and quaint customs known and appreciated only by the Vatican, the resignation (the Church itself mandates) has not been accepted and the Cardinal has remained in office.
Cardinal Wuerl has stated he will not step down now in the wake of the allegations against him contained in the Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report.
That is unfortunate.
As an example of the frustration and anger that has resulted from the Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report regarding then-Bishop of Pittsburgh Wuerl, an online petition is calling for his name to be removed from Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic High School.
As of last Thursday, more than 2,000 people had signed the petition.
The Bishop of Pittsburgh has not said if it will consider the name change.
It's only going to get worse for the Cardinal and for the Church at-large.
Realistically, it is only a matter of time before Cardinal Wuerl will be forced from office due to the scathing attacks against him.
Pope Francis needs to see the writing on the wall and accept the Cardinal’s long-overdue resignation as quickly as possible for his sake and the “good of the Church”.
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