Cardinal Wuerl resignation: Full text of Pope Francis’ letter
Please find the full text of Pope Francis’ letter to Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl, in an unofficial translation made available on the website of the Archdiocese of Washington.
To our Venerable Brother Cardinal Donald William Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington:
On September 21st I received your request that I accept your resignation from the pastoral government of the Archdiocese of Washington.
I am aware that this request rests on two pillars that have marked and continue to mark your ministry: to seek in all things the greater glory of God and to procure the good of the people entrusted to your care. The shepherd knows that the wellbeing and the unity of the People of God are precious gifts that the Lord has implored and for which he gave his life. He paid a very high price for this unity and our mission is to take care that the people not only remain united, but become witnesses of the Gospel “That they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me” (John17:21). This is the horizon from which we are continually invited to discern all our actions. (My comment: While this is true, isn't the one Sacrifice of Christ and the high price that Jesus paid, more importantly, about our salvation, redemption and the opening of the gates of heaven for us which prior to this high price being paid were closed to us?????? Is Jesus' mission only a worldly one to make us good people who are untied in good works???????)
I recognize in your request the heart of the shepherd who, by widening his vision to recognize a greater good that can benefit the whole body (cf. Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii gaudium, 235), prioritizes actions that support, stimulate and make the unity and mission of the Church grow above every kind of sterile division sown by the father of lies who, trying to hurt the shepherd, wants nothing more than that the sheep be dispersed (cf. Matthew26:31).
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. However, your nobility has led you not to choose this way of defense. Of this, I am proud and thank you.
In this way, you make clear the intent to put God’s Project first, before any kind of personal project, including what could be considered as good for the Church. Your renunciation is a sign of your availability and docility to the Spirit who continues to act in his Church.
In accepting your resignation, I ask you to remain as Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese until the appointment of your successor.
Dear brother, I make my own the words of Sirach: “You who fear the Lord, trust in him, and your reward will not be lost” (2:8). May the Virgin Mary protect you with her mantle and may the strength of the Holy Spirit give you the grace to know how to continue to serve him in this new time that the Lord gives you.
Vatican City, October 12, 2018
(signed by Pope Francis)
25 comments:
I feel sorry for Cardinal Wuerl. Church Militant and additional folks/outlets have trashed him viciously in recent weeks.
Pope Francis is correct that evil forces have been unleashed recently to smash our Churchmen — our Pope, Cardinal, bishops, and priests...it's all related to claims lodged against former Cardinal McCarrick, as well as the Pennsylvania Report.
Cardinal McCarrick's alleged sins were employed to defame Pope Francis...it was claimed that His Holiness ignored "canonical" sanctions that Pope Benedict XVI had applied supposedly to then-Cardinal McCarrick.
We know that that claim is a lie.
Factions within opposed to Popes Saint John XXIII, Blessed Paul VI, Saint John Paul II, Francis, Novus Ordo Mass, as well as Vatican II, employed the Pennsylvania Report, and allegations against Archbishop McCarrick, to attack said Popes, the Council...as well as "Novus Ordo" Cardinals and bishops.
A certain leading "traditional" Catholic blog, that traffics in lies, led the charge in regard to the above.
Although I am a weak, sinful, nobody, I stand with the Vicar of Christ, Pope Francis.
I have take up his exhortation to pray the Rosary this month to drive out evil forces who, in recent weeks, have hammered our Pope, Cardinals, and bishops...who have hammered Holy Mother Church.
In line with Pope Francis' exhortation in question, I also pray the Saint Michael Archangel pray following each Rosary that I've recited.
I am certain that tens of millions of my brothers and sisters in the Faith are united to Pope Francis' request in question.
I pray also that Cardinal Wuerl will find himself in peace and good health.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
MT, I wish I could be such an apologist for what is happening to the Church as you. Like you, I do not believe any pope can be forced to resign and in fact I wish no pope would resign. Pope Benedict has set a bad precedent and it has cause division in the Church when one compares Benedict's solution for the inner healing that is needed in the post-Vatican II Church and Pope Francis' solution which has beyond a shadow of a doubt brought the Church's wounds to the point of arterial bleeding and polarization. All the good Pope Benedict hope to bring about has been completely undone and the restoration of discipline and common sense in the Church begun by Pope St. John Paul after the disastrous post-Vatican II years has been wiped out in a short five years.
I would suggest that there are extremes on both sides of the great schism that Pope Francis has exacerbated in five years and one can only see what happened to Pope Benedict from the left to understand that.
Your comment above which I posted will be the last one for you on this particular thread as you have exhausted your apologetic with it.
"He paid a very high price for this unity and our mission is to take care that the people not only remain united, but become witnesses of the Gospel “That they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me” (John17:21). This is the horizon from which we are continually invited to discern all our actions."
(My comment: While this is true, isn't the one Sacrifice of Christ and the high price that Jesus paid, more importantly, about our salvation, redemption and the opening of the gates of heaven for us which prior to this high price being paid were closed to us?????? Is Jesus' mission only a worldly one to make us good people who are untied in good works???????)
Redemption/Salvation isn't missing from the pope's words, nor are his words about matters merely "worldly."
If our lives give witness to the Gospel we are living out, as we were Baptized to do, the redemption that has been won for us. If we bear witness to the Gospel in this world then we will be found worthy to enter the kingdom of heaven.(see Matt 25)
As St Paul reminds us "So then, my beloved, obedient as you have always been, not only when I am present but all the more now when I am absent, work out your salvation with fear and trembling." (Philippians 2:12)
It is in "worldly" ways that we give witness to the Gospel.
As annoying as Mr. Thomas' posts frequently are, please don't censor him. The shallow emptiness of his arguments and other readers' replies are often a good education in the bankruptcy of the postconciliar Church.
I guess canonically there is a difference, but this doesnt seem to chage anythig. Cardinal Wuerl was already serving until Francis named a successor. Cardinal Wuerl submitted his resignation again so that the faithful of Washington DC werent scandalized by his continued presence, but he’s still there.
FRMJK, what you write is 100% correct, except what is made explicit in Francis' kind words to Wuerl isn't the full story you convey nor is it implied for the poor soul who doesn't know what you know.
This is Francis chosen quote: (Jesus) paid a very high price for this unity and our mission is to take care that the people not only remain united, but become witnesses of the Gospel “That they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me” (John17:21). This is the horizon from which we are continually invited to discern all our actions.
From a secular point of view we can been united in good or evil as all Utopian ideologies tries to do with the masses of people. Ours, though is built on the foundation of eternal life in heaven that require evidence of having embraced the sanctifying graces of God that lead to it, Good Works. But even atheists can be untied with us in good works,but they don't accept Jesus Christ or any Divine Person of the Most Holy Trinity.
In other words, an atheist could be united with us in good works and give even better witness to following Jesus. But for them Jesus is a dead hero not the risen Lord who pours the eternal life giving sanctifying graces into our souls in all the sacraments, built upon the life giving waters flowing from the side of our Crucified Savior. They don't believe that!
When I read the endless justifications of slavishly obeying and supporting the gay-loving, faith-hating Novus Ordo establishment that has a stranglehold on the governing of our Church, I almost want to cry. When I see the leaders of Church Militant TV and lay groups like The Roman Catholic Faithful maligned, I am reminded by these words from the late Archbishop Fulton Sheen:
"Who is going to save our Church? Not our bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to you, the people. You have the minds, the eyes, the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops, like bishops, and your religious act like religious."
Jack here...
Thank you, Father.
Over the years I have read your site to help discern truth from all the lies out there. We pew-sitters who have depended on your site for honest, sometimes nuanced (because there really are “two sides to every story”) reflection on the major issues of our beloved Holy Mother Church thank you for your efforts. You have little to gain and sometimes much to lose with these efforts. And the nut cases on both sides of any issue will continue to dog your efforts...myself included.
The purpose of the Church, her raison d'etre, is to lead souls to heaven. When Her priests at all levels, commissioned by Christ, hold to this mission in Her name, we all benefit. When they lose their way for whatever reason (and there are many), we all lose. I for one am tired of the losing and will spend whatever years I have left trying to discern and hold on to the truth. Your blog and your efforts therein help me on this sometimes perilous journey. Thank you and may God continue to bless you.
Wuerl was never as bad as he was painted. At least his successor's appointment will not be influenced by McCarrick.
By the way, until recently few people on this side of the pond had heard of Cupich, or would have been able to pronounce his name (soft C before U? Surely not). However, his heterodoxy and heavy-handed treatment of Fr Kalchik has now been flagged up here.
And later this month Professor Peter Kwasniewski will be spending five days in England to launch a new book and hear the première of one of his Mass settings. I look forward to meeting him.
Those of us who hold the USA in high regard lament the current toxicity of American politics and the travails of the Catholic Church there. But we are grateful that the US has produced some outstanding bishops (Burke, Sample, Morlino, Cordileone) and that the CMAA is leading the way in the restoration of sacred music.
His name is pronounced: Sue-pitch. I knew him personally as the rector of the Pontifical College Josephinum in the late 1980's which had both college and major seminaries. He requested of my then-bishop that I be released from the diocese to work in the college level seminary.
I would not call him a flaming liberal but a product of the 1970's mentality as it concerns the horizontal, sterile view of the liturgy and the pastoral theology that Francis has recovered.
He renovated the main seminary chapel into a very ugly "wreckovation" which since his time in the 1980's has been restored a couple of times, with the most recent restoration a true restoration.
The Pontifical College Josephinum is in Columbus, Ohio.
The fact that the pope has asked him to remain as "apostolic administrator" certainly indicates that we are in for a long, slow goodbye.
Wuerl never WAS as bad as some make out, but he was never worthy of the positions to which he rose. The current mediocre hierarchy is rife with other Wuerls.
The scariest thing to consider, and no one has brought this up yet, is the question of who will this current pope appoint in his stead? I guarantee, none of us will like the new bishop, so long as the current pope is the one who chooses him.
Fr McD is correct to point out that the actions of the clergy are meant to be more than this worldly, but are about the next too, which this letter is very weak on, as the entire sex abuse crisis in the Church has been weak on, that is, the concern over crime instead of sin.
Cdl Wuerl is honourable in submitting his resignation to the pope, because the salvific work of the Church is being compromised with these revelations of his involvement in these sexual abuse coverups. If he is innocent he is the victim of a cult of clerical secrecy in reporting crimes that has been showing its ugly face for a few years now, and not of the ChurchMilitant. This cult of clerical secrecy is the height of the so called evil "clericalism" that the neo-Modernists hypocritically criticise. In being pastoral, in accompanying someone through discernment, there is that sense of duty to secrecy in the interactions. Yet it is one thing to keep secret the sexual sins that the priest hears in the confessional, and quite another to use secrecy for covering up scandal when not discovered in the confessional. While watching a rerun of an old BBC Fr Brown TV episode with Kenneth More the other day, I wondered to what extent some of these sexual predators in the clergy have used the confessional to silence their superiors (as confessors) of their sins which are also crimes in the secular world. The government of Australia has recently tried to deal with this.
Clerical secrecy in the form of papal secrecy has really not helped the Church recently. I do not think the pope realises how much damage he has done to the Church in keeping silence, of keeping secrecy, surrounding the Vigano accusations. Perhaps the Code of Canon Law needs some refinement over this issue of clerical secrecy.
MT, these "evil forces" that you and Francis speak of are most often due to people being angry as heck at the behavior of clergy. They are tired of hypocrisy and evil behavior. Maybe if they tried to understand the anger, they would improve.
Mark Thomas said... "I feel sorry for Cardinal Wuerl. Church Militant and additional folks/outlets have trashed him viciously in recent weeks."
I do not feel sorry for Cardinal Wuerl. For years he has been living in one of the most expensive areas of Washington, DC, jets back and forth to Rome and other places when necessary, does not have to worry about where his next meal is coming from, does not have to work like the common man, has paid up health benefits, et cetera.
Most of the world would consider that a life of luxury.
No, I feel sorry for the thousands of victims of clerical sex abuse, many of whom have been "trashed" by the hierarchy for years.
I feel sorry for Father Marcel Guarnizo, who stood up for Christ and was "trashed" by Cardinal Wuerl.
I feel sorry for the victims who were "trashed" by Pope Francis, who called them "leftists" and "slanderers."
I feel sorry for the victims who have committed suicide, and I feel sorry for the baby whose abortion was paid for by the baby's priest/father.
I feel sorry for people who are so out of touch with reality, so tone deaf, and so dedicated to their own specific narrative, that they cannot feel the least bit of empathy for the myriad of truly suffering victims.
Such tone deaf people add to the sufferings of said victims. Lives destroyed, and in some cases snuffed out, while members of the hierarchy were complicit and the tone deaf feeling "sorry" for the perpetrators.
What an unbelievably horrendous tragedy.
I have to agree with you. Most of us traditional or orthodox Catholics felt the abuse problem was being exaggerated by the liberal media and heterodox catholics. The reality is the clericalism of the hierarchy to arrogantly think they could accompany perverted homosexual priests, bishops and cardinals to gradually repair them is what has led to your apt description. Pope Francis doesn’t get it.
Allan, there is no way that a Pope or pastor can, in a brief letter, eliminate any possibility of any misunderstanding that a reader of that letter may have.
A secular person will always read what Pope Francis, or any pope or pastor, writes from a secular point of view. That point of view will, necessarily, color how he/she understand what he/she reads.
You seem to read Pope Francis' words from that very secular point of view, even though you are an ecclesially oriented person.
You say, "But for them [those with a secular point of view] Jesus is a dead hero not the risen Lord who pours the eternal life giving sanctifying graces into our souls in all the sacraments, built upon the life giving waters flowing from the side of our Crucified Savior. They don't believe that!"
I say, "Yes. So?" Are you expecting secularists to read the pope's letters from a non-secular point of view?
Read with the eyes of faith and understanding, and read by someone who knows 1) the Scriptures and 2) the teaching of the Church, there is nothing lacking in what Pope Francis wrote.
60's Survivor said..."As annoying as Mr. Thomas' posts frequently are, please don't censor him. The shallow emptiness of his arguments and other readers' replies are often a good education in the bankruptcy of the postconciliar Church."
I enjoy discussing Catholicism. But I am the dumbest person here. It is true that as a nobody, my opinions are worthless.
The "postconciliar Church" is the same Church of all-time.
As to the supposed "bankruptcy of the postconciliar Church":
Good luck attempting to convince tens of millions of holy, humble, "post-conciliar" Catholics that the "post-conciliar Church" is bankrupt.
They love the "post-concilar Church," as they love the Church of all-time.
Try telling the "postconciliar" Catholic Church, which is booming throughout Africa and Asia, that She is "bankrupt."
Pax.
Mark Thomas
MT,
Well in the US prior to Vatican Disaster II, about 80% of American Catholics attended Sunday Mass, compared to maybe 20% today. You don't have a problem with that? You think that spells success?
Mark Thomas said..."It is true that as a nobody, my opinions are worthless."
The truth of the matter is that you believe your opinions are quite valid and valuable and in fact are superior to the opinions of others; otherwise, you would not spend so much time expressing them.
A person who truly believes that his opinions are worthless would not be constantly posting his opinions for all to read.
Virtue signaling at its finest.
Jack here...
No, Father, neither the Pope nor MJK “get it”. They and their progressive minions will probably never get it in their lifetimes. There is a blindness that cannot be cured by ordinary means because it is spiritual rather than physical. Only conversion can cure this blindness; believe me I know of what I speak because I have been there done that. I was part of a generation that believed social action would save the world. I worked in an AIDS clinic when they were all dying (believe me there were better, more lucrative jobs for a medical professional). I contributed to every liberal cause out there. I volunteered to visit the homebound with the Eucharist and with medical expertise. I dragged my growing family to repair disintegrating houses for the poor. God help me, I even voted for Jimmy Carter! (My last vote for a Democrat, thank you). I would love to know how much of this activity the progressive clergy (like MJK) have actually done.
I cannot begin to stress enough how much of this misery and poverty was driven by alcohol and drug abuse, horrendous/enabling homelife situations, and just plain horrible life choices. I don’t regret any of this as it taught me a lot. Most especially it taught me that physical help, although much needed, cannot and does not replace the much more important attention to calling out sin. You don’t accomplish much by “accompanying” sin; it must be confronted and called what it is.
I still believe we are obligated to feed the hungry, slake thirst, clothe the naked, and visit the prisoner. What I don’t believe is that the Church founded by Jesus Christ should be felled by members of a hierarchy hell-bent on their sinful paths of destruction. They don’t care about all the lost whom DJR references. They don’t care about anything but their own social agendas, no matter the damage caused.
Most of all, they don’t care about those of us who remain in the pews trying hard to do the next right thing. We put up with horrible liturgies, vacuous homilies and social gatherings in the pews. All we want is one hour of transcendent Liturgy and maybe a decent homily every now and then that focuses on building strong spiritual lives without confusion/changing the teachings of the Church. Is that asking too much?
Given disastrous appointments like Cupich, I cringe at the thought of who will replace Wuehrl.Maybe President Trump should demand the same courtesy PF is extending to the Red Chinese.
Jack - Since you asked...
I have worked with migrants in migrant labor camps in SW Georgia. I spent time in the Catholic Worker House in Washington, DC, then located just 7 blocks from the White House. I have worked in soup kitchens cooking and serving. I have been in numerous prisons and jails, including Central State Prison in Macon during my previous assignment where I was the visiting Catholic chaplain for 4 years. I spent time with my college's campus ministry visiting the Youth Detention Facility in Dallas, NC. I regularly visit hospitals and nursing homes to minister to the sick and the dying. I have not yet been involved in Habitat for Humanity but am planning that for my retirement. If Jimmy Carter can do it at age 94, I can do it at 70.
Accompaniment is not about "accompanying sin." It is about accompanying the sinner.
As I pointed out in another thread, Simon Decloux, SJ, wrote about accompaniment in his essay "How God Accompanied Ignatius - A Paradigm for Us in Helping Souls." In his essay he writes, "It is clear that from the period of Loyola, recognizing that God is active in his life, Ignatius becomes aware without delay that his own life has not corresponded to the expectations of the lord." (page 13)
And
"Every 'convert is invited to recall past errors so as to find the path to follow; one must correct former bad habits and overcome what brought them about.'" (page 14)
The notion that accompaniment does not include the call to conversion, to turn away from sin, is false.
I do not believe that social action will save the world. And, quite frankly, I don't know anyone who does. I do believe that social action is how we live out the call to holiness we received at Baptism and that we will be judged on how we have used in this world the gifts that God has given us.
The below link is to Father Marcel Guarnizo's explanation of what happened at the funeral back a few years ago.
https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/father-marcel-guarnizo-i-did-only-thing-faithful-catholic-priest-could-do
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