G
gilliam
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Cardinal Donald Wuerl: The pope’s man in Washington cruxnow.com/church/2015/12/24/cardinal-donald-wuerl-the-popes-man-in-washington/ …
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L
LongingSoul
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I thoroughly enjoyed that article. His life restores your faith in ‘the Priest’ that has been so horribly damaged by pedophiles over the last century. I thought this was brilliant…
*Wuerl was well ahead of that curve, in dealing both with victims and accused priests. In one case, when the Vatican in 1993 ordered him to return to ministry a priest Wuerl insisted was credibly accused of abuse, he traveled to Rome six times over several years in a dogged effort to overturn that ruling.
Remarkably, Wuerl eventually won that battle, and in 2002 he successfully petitioned John Paul to involuntarily laicize the priest. It was a surprising victory in the face of Vatican resistance — and an episode that goes against the idea that Wuerl was only interested in keeping his superiors happy.
“You have to be able to express your convictions,” Wuerl says today of that episode. “What I hope I’ve learned over the years is that you have to be able to do it in a respectful, loving way. But you have to speak the truth in love.*”
And I remember the following episode and it’s good to hear the back story to it.
*That so many bishops are criticizing Francis and trying to undermine his agenda, often in backhanded ways, has at times elicited unusually pointed rejoinders from Wuerl. At the most recent Vatican synod last October, Wuerl grew so vexed by the critiques of the pope by many of his colleagues — some of them fellow Americans — that he called reporters to defend the pope and deliver his own message:
“I wonder if some of these people who are speaking, sometimes surreptitiously, sometimes half-way implying, then backing off and then twisting around, I wonder if it is really that they find they just don’t like this pope,” Wuerl told America magazine, a Jesuit-run weekly. “I wonder if that isn’t part of it*.”
I also loved this insight into the man…
*“I feel extremely comfortable and in tune with this pope,” Wuerl says. But, he adds — no surprise — that he felt that way with every pope he has served under. He was “very comfortable with the theology of Benedict XVI,” he says, and he was closest to John Paul II: “I had a wonderful relationship with him, probably far more personal than any other pope.
“But now comes Pope Francis, and I have to say I feel very comfortable, very much in tune with what he’s saying, because it’s what a pastor’s heart says.*”
*Wuerl was well ahead of that curve, in dealing both with victims and accused priests. In one case, when the Vatican in 1993 ordered him to return to ministry a priest Wuerl insisted was credibly accused of abuse, he traveled to Rome six times over several years in a dogged effort to overturn that ruling.
Remarkably, Wuerl eventually won that battle, and in 2002 he successfully petitioned John Paul to involuntarily laicize the priest. It was a surprising victory in the face of Vatican resistance — and an episode that goes against the idea that Wuerl was only interested in keeping his superiors happy.
“You have to be able to express your convictions,” Wuerl says today of that episode. “What I hope I’ve learned over the years is that you have to be able to do it in a respectful, loving way. But you have to speak the truth in love.*”
And I remember the following episode and it’s good to hear the back story to it.
*That so many bishops are criticizing Francis and trying to undermine his agenda, often in backhanded ways, has at times elicited unusually pointed rejoinders from Wuerl. At the most recent Vatican synod last October, Wuerl grew so vexed by the critiques of the pope by many of his colleagues — some of them fellow Americans — that he called reporters to defend the pope and deliver his own message:
“I wonder if some of these people who are speaking, sometimes surreptitiously, sometimes half-way implying, then backing off and then twisting around, I wonder if it is really that they find they just don’t like this pope,” Wuerl told America magazine, a Jesuit-run weekly. “I wonder if that isn’t part of it*.”
I also loved this insight into the man…
*“I feel extremely comfortable and in tune with this pope,” Wuerl says. But, he adds — no surprise — that he felt that way with every pope he has served under. He was “very comfortable with the theology of Benedict XVI,” he says, and he was closest to John Paul II: “I had a wonderful relationship with him, probably far more personal than any other pope.
“But now comes Pope Francis, and I have to say I feel very comfortable, very much in tune with what he’s saying, because it’s what a pastor’s heart says.*”
P
ProVobis
Guest
That’s a matter of opinion and perception, no? I saw very little objectivity in the article.I thoroughly enjoyed that article. His life restores your faith in ‘the Priest’ that has been so horribly damaged by pedophiles over the last century.
Z
zab
Guest
Wonderful article!
T
twf
Guest
Very loaded article. The bias just drips off every word. It was basically a slap in the face to the majority of American bishops- the hope that they’ll be replaced by “kind, pastoral” bishops like +Cupich rather than mean, nasty old conservatives like Burke was palpable.
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