ALLEGHENY (PA)
Trib Live
August 22, 2018
By Deb Erdley
Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik was stunned when a group of abuse survivors demanded he resign over his handling of child sexual abuse complaints as detailed in a recent grand jury report.
“I was surprised that people would ask me to resign. First of all, resignations are something that are decided by the pope,” Zubik said. “But since becoming bishop of Pittsburgh since 2007, I’ve been very responsive. … And I want to still continue to lead the people to help with their healing.”
A recent flurry of complaints to diocesan officials in Greensburg and Pittsburgh as well 544 calls to a sexual abuse hotline run by the state Attorney General’s office in the week since the public release of a stunning grand jury report on clergy abusing minors across Pennsylvania suggests that it could take some time as the Catholic church attempts to deal with an international plague of complaints and allegations of cover-ups that triggered recent high-profile resignations.
Among those to resign as Pope Francis bemoaned the scandal that has ripped the church across several continents are Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington, D.C., an archbishop in Australia, and five bishops in Chile.
Judy Jones, the Midwestern director of SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) last week called on Zubik and his predecessor Cardinal Donald Wuerl, archbishop of Washington, D.C., to resign, saying the report suggested they were more interested in protecting priests than children.
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