By Pamela Sroka-Holzmann
The Express-Times
July 19, 2011
http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/allentown/index.ssf/2011/07/phila_archbishop_expected_to_s.html
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| Cardinal Justin Rigali, Archbishop of Philadelphia, celebrates Ash Wednesday Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Philadelphia. |
Philadelphia Cardinal Justin Rigali is expected to step down five months after a grand jury report blasted the archdiocese for failing to investigate claims of sexual abuse by priests, according to a Catholic news website
Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver will replace him, according to the National Catholic Reporter website.
Pope Benedict XVI today is expected to accept Rigali's resignation, according to the site. Rigali, 76, had been leading the archdiocese since 2003.
Rigali last April submitted a resignation letter to the Vatican on his 75th birthday — the church's default retirement age — and did not provide a reason, said Philadelphia Archdiocese spokeswoman Donna Farrell.
In February, a Philadelphia grand jury report accused the Philadelphia archdiocese of failing to investigate allegations for decades that priests sexually abused children.
The grand jury investigation was released following the investigation into allegations that two priests and a Catholic school teacher sexually abused a 10-year-old boy at St. Jerome Church in Northeast Philadelphia, and that another priest assigned to St. Jerome raped a 14-year-old boy.
Juliann Bortz, a leader with the Allentown chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), said she has seen an increase in victims in recent weeks with at least four men alleging abuse by a religious leader within the past month.
Bortz fears the Vatican could promote Rigali instead of reprimanding him.
"If this guy ends up in the Vatican, it's not going to be surprising," Bortz said. "People should be outraged if he ends up with a promotion."
Allentown Diocese spokesman Matt Kerr would only say, "If the Vatican announces the retirement of Cardinal Rigali and the appointment of his successor, the diocese will release a statement at that time."
Denver Archdiocese spokeswoman Jeanette R. De Melo Monday called a report on the Catholic Review site "speculation."
"We'll have to wait for Rome to know the reality," she said.
Joseph Kurtz, the archbishop of Louisville, had been under consideration for the post, according to a blog on the Catholic Reporter site. Kurtz spent 27 years in the Allentown diocese. He taught at Allentown Central Catholic High School and served as assistant pastor at Ss. Simon and Jude Church in Bethlehem.
The scathing grand jury report was the second produced in Philadelphia since 2005 and alleges decades of cover-ups among Catholic religious leaders.
Former Allentown Diocese Bishop Edward Cullen, who retired in 2009, had testified before the grand jury that Philadelphia Archbishop Anthony Cardinal Bevilacqua was insistent in all cases that parishioners not be told the truth about abusive priests.
It includes a memo Cullen wrote Aug. 25, 1993, to Monsignor William Lynn in which he passes along Bevilacqua's instructions about how the matter involving the Rev. Edward Avery should be handled.
The memo says parishioners of St. Therese of the Child Jesus parish in Philadelphia should be told Avery was resigning as pastor for health reasons, the grand jury report says. In fact, Avery had been accused of sexual abuse.
Avery then was assigned to St. Jerome, where authorities say in 1998, the incident with the 10-year-old boy began. Prosecutors say the abuse continued until 2000.
The alleged assaults occurred when Cullen was named the No. 2 administrator in the Philadelphia Archdiocese.
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