Embattled Washington, D.C. Cardinal Donald Wuerl says he simply forgot that he had been told about sexual-abuse allegations against powerful American Cardinal Theodore McCarrick back in 2004, and that he informed the Vatican during the waning days of Pope John Paul II’s papacy. Wuerl resigned as archbishop of D.C. after he was accused of not doing enough to manage systemic clerical sex abuse and coverups. He was named more than 200 times in a damning Pennsylvania report on abuse last summer. On Tuesday evening, Wuerl apologized to Father Robert Ciolek, who had flagged the credible allegations that McCarrick had abused an 11-year-old boy in 2004. After Ciolek published evidence, Wuerl said he genuinely forgot about the matter. “There was never the intention to provide false information,” he wrote.
