After years of being mentioned for a promotion every time a bigger see opened up, Bishop Donald Wuerl of Pittsburgh has finally been asked to step up to the plate. Wuerl has been named archbishop of Washington, DC, to replace Cardinal Ted McCarrick.
McCarrick submitted his resignation last year as a matter of form upon reaching the age limit of 75, but said that Pope Benedict had told him he was going to stay on for several years. That surprised some people given the very public embarrassment of a few years ago when McCarrick apparently misrepresented the content of then-Cardinal Ratzinger’s letter to US bishops on how to deal with dissenting Catholic politicians. In any case, by this spring McCarrick had changed his tune and was saying that he expected to be cut loose by this summer. And so he has.
Controversy has followed McCarrick. A few strange rumors of personal misconduct followed him around, but most criticism centered around a penchant for loving the media a little too much and tolerating a liberal clerical elite in his dioceses.
Also, the infamous Bishop Joseph Imesch of Joliet, Illinois, has retired and been replaced by Bishop James Sartain of Little Rock, Arkansas. Who is Imesch? Yeah, that guy. Not sorry to see him retire. I don’t know anything about Sartain, but I hope for the sake of the Catholics of Joliet they get a clean sweep like Bishop Finn gave Kansas City.
Update: American Papist has a roundup of the coverage of the Wuerl appointment, including links to his books and some of his writings.
