Pennsylvania prosecutor critical of Wuerl deal

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) – The prosecutor who released a grand jury report in August on rampant sex abuse in six Pennsylvania dioceses says it is unacceptable that Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl is retiring with no apparent consequences.

Attorney General Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania said Friday the grand jury report and diocesan records documented Wuerl oversaw and participated in a systematic cover up of child sexual abuse by clergymen while leading the Pittsburgh diocese.

Wuerl was bishop of Pittsburgh from 1988 to 2006.

Wuerl is apologizing to Catholics in his archdiocese after Pope Francis accepted his resignation Friday as archbishop.

The pope, in accepting Wuerl’s resignation, asked him to stay on temporarily and suggested Wuerl had unfairly become a scapegoat, having made some “mistakes” in handling sex abuse cases, but not having covered them up.