MSNBC
July 19, 2011
http://www.MSNBC.msn.com/id/43805660/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/
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| Philadelphia Archbishop cardinal Justin Rigali will step down Tuesday after eight tumultuous years. |
Cardinal Justin Rigali, whose leadership of the Philadelphia Roman Catholic archdiocese has been tainted by a continuing scandal over sexual misconduct by priests, is set to retire Tuesday.
The archdiocese, the sixth largest in the United States with 1.5 million Catholics, has been under fire over accusations it concealed the sexual abuse of children by priests to avoid a costly scandal.
The archdiocese website announced that Rigali, 76, is to be replaced by Archbishop Charles Chaput, 66, who has been archbishop in Denver since 1997.
The Catholic Church has been rocked by a series of sexual abuse cover-up scandals in both Europe and the United States in recent years.
Rigali, archbishop in Philadelphia since 2003, has been struggling to contain the pedophilia scandal in the wake of a Philadelphia grand jury report issued at the beginning of this year. Three priests, a monsignor and a church teacher were indicted as a result of the report.
"We would have assumed," said the grand jury in a report, "by the year 2011, after all the revelations both here and around the world, that the church would not risk its youth by leaving them in the presence of priests subject to substantial evidence of abuse. That is not the case."
The grand jury said that it found 37 such priests who have been kept in assignments that exposed them to children.
Of that number, 21 were suspended after the report, and three more were placed on administrative leave.
Chaput is an American Indian, who will follow two Italian-Americans who have led the Philadelphia archdiocese for decades.
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