Christ is Risen!
The Holy Father announced a new shepherd for the faithful of the Archdiocese of Washington.

May God grant his servants, Cardinal McCarrick and Bishop Wuerl many years in peace, health and happiness.

Deacon El
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McCarrick Retiring as Head of Washington Archdiocese

Pittsburgh Bishop Donald W. Wuerl Named Successor

By Debbi Wilgoren
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 16, 2006; 7:48 AM

Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the resignation of Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick as Archbishop of the Washington Archdiocese, and appointed Pittsburgh Bishop Donald W. Wuerl as his successor, the Vatican announced this morning.

Wuerl, a close friend of McCarrick's who has led the Pittsburgh diocese for 18 years, will be installed June 22, archdiocesan spokeswoman Susan Gibbs said.

The two men will appear together at a news conference at 10 a.m.

McCarrick's five-year stewardship of the Washington Archdiocese has been marked by prolific fundraising and outspoken but folksy leadership on topics ranging from clergy sexual abuse to communion for those who believe in abortion rights to the selection of Pope Benedict XVI last year.

McCarrick said in a recent interview that the archdiocese would install 12 new priests this month, the most in any year since 1973, had completed a $185 million capital campaign and -- unlike many other U.S. dioceses -- is operating in the black.

The archdiocese includes 560,000 Catholics and 115 parochial schools in the District and Maryland. The diocese of Pittsburgh is larger, with 800,000 Catholics in 215 parishes throughout Southwestern Pennsylvania. But the Washington post is one of the most visible in the United States. The leader of this archdiocese traditionally is elevated to the rank of cardinal during his tenure.

McCarrick became eligible for retirement last July, when he turned 75 years old and submitted a resignation letter to the Vatican, as required by church law.

While Benedict's predecessor, Pope John Paul II, often allowed priests to serve long past their 75th birthdays, Benedict is known as a stickler for rules who hews more closely to the retirement age.

McCarrick, who previously served as archbishop of Newark for 14 years, said recently that he felt at peace with his service and was ready to step down.

He will remain in the Washington area, Gibbs said, and continue to serve in the College of Cardinals and on the board of Catholic Relief Services.

Until Wuerl is installed next month, McCarrick will be the apostolic administrator of the archdiocese, Gibbs said. After that, his title will be archbishop emeritus.

Wuerl, 65, is known as the "education bishop," Gibbs said. He shares McCarrick's expansive view that politicians should be able to received communion regardless of whether they embrace abortion rights, but is also considered a conservative theologian. He has written his own catechism, which has been widely translated, Gibbs said.

Wuerl speaks some Spanish, but unlike McCarrick, is not fluent. About 30 percent of Catholics in the Washington archdiocese are of Latino decent.
He was born in Pittsburgh and has been very active in the community there, serving on the boards of the Urban League and the United Way, Gibbs said. He earned one graduate degree at Catholic University in Washington, and two others at church-affiliated universities in Rome.
Wuerl is also somewhat of a media personality, hosting a weekly television show on faith in contemporary life that is called "The Teaching of Christ" and airs on the CBS affiliate in Pittsburgh and a Christian cable station, and is syndicated elsewhere in the country.
Staff writer Fred Barbash contributed to this report.

Many Years to both hierarchs!

Please pray for my diocese with this transition. I know the media is focused on things like communion to pro-aborts, but to Cardinal McCarrick's enduring credit, he has done a marvelous job of increasing vocations to the priesthood in our diocese. In two weeks, we will be ordaining 12 men to the priesthood! And these men are holy orthodox young men, dedicated to serving Christ. I pray that Bishop Wuerl continues to promote vocations as Cardinal McCarrick did.

Blessed Theotokos, pray for us!

I know a few folks here in Pittsburgh who are ecstatic about this announcement. Bishop Weurl closed their churches, and they burn with a most unChristian-like hatred of the man. Too bad. I'm a big fan of transition and the hope it brings; hope that is rarely realized. I will keep my brothers in my prayers.

What Bishop Wuerl did in closing the parishes in Pittsburgh was painful but necessary. There were neither sufficient vocations nor sufficient numbers in the pews to keep many of these parishes open, but you can't tell the old folks around Pittsburgh anything. I oughta know - I have a lot of older family members. For them, changing anything is anathema. I was in (of all places!) the DC area when that was going on. It was a bitter time.

Archbishop-designate Wuerl will certainly work to increase the number of vocations to the religious life in the Washington Archdiocese as he has done in the Diocese of Pittsburgh. The decline in the Diocese of Pittsburgh was due more to demographics than anything else.

Bishop Wuerl's statement, from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:
The decision of our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, to transfer me to the Archdiocese of Washington, is one I embrace in the context of faith in God’s providential care. Although I am greatly aware of my own limitations, I find strength in the Pope’s trust in me and also in the prayerful support I have always found from the Catholic faithful I have attempted to serve here in the Diocese of Pittsburgh.

For more than 18 years I have tried to serve Christ in his Church with all of my heart and ability. The Church of Pittsburgh will always hold a unique place in my affection. It was here that I first heard the Gospel, was nurtured in the sacraments, was supported in my response to the call to priesthood and where I first experienced pastoral ministry as a newly ordained priest.

I am deeply grateful to you the clergy, religious and lay faithful who have always shared a common commitment to the Lord and recognized the embrace of God’s grace working among all of us. Thank you.

In all of the efforts to build up this Church and manifest God’s Kingdom in our midst we together have addressed the spiritual and faith renewal of this six county-wide diocese. In solidarity we have undertaken the revitalization and reorganization process, we have worked diligently in unity to pass on the faith in our religious education programs and schools, we have entered into an Envisioning Ministry process to ensure that fewer priests will not mean less ministry and we have attempted to care for our sisters and brothers, neighbors and friends in need. All of this responding to what Pope Benedict XVI calls the essential mission of the Church: to proclaim the Gospel, to celebrate the sacraments, and to care for those in need. And we have done it together, as God’s family.

(snip)

When I was first named a bishop I chose as my episcopal motto “Thy Kingdom Come.” That challenge is a reminder that all we say and do should help in some way to manifest God’s Kingdom among us until it comes in its fullness in glory.

As I begin to conclude my ministry in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, I am sincerely grateful to God for the opportunity to have served in this portion of his vineyard and to have worked together with so many of the clergy, religious and lay faithful in manifesting the Kingdom here in our corner of the world. Thank you for the great blessing all of you have been to me!

As I accept this new responsibility and carry with me the memories and experiences of this diocese, I hope I can always bring with me as well your prayerful support and faith-filled good wishes.

May God bless you.

Thank you.

I wish him well and will pray for an orthodox Catholic bishop to be his successor here in Pittsburgh.

Other Pittsburgh-area natives who are bishops include:
Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence, Rhode Island
Bishop David Zubik of Green Bay, Wisconsin
Cardinal Adam Maida of Detroit
Archbishop Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston