_WORLD WATCH______________________________
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Archbishop won’t resign
Implicated in sex-abuse scandal
Archbishop John
Aloysius Ward of Cardiff has
announced he will not resign, and will not serve as a “scapegoat” for the
Church’s problems with clerical sex abuse.
In an interview published by the Catholic Herald, Archbishop Ward, who is 72, said he would not step down until he turns 75—the standard age of retirement for Catholic bishops—in January 2004. He said he should not be forced to resign because of the recent pedophile scandals in his archdiocese. The archbishop’s public statement came after the revelation that the papal nuncio in Great Britain, Archbishop Pablo Puente, had begun the process of seeking a replacement.
In a television documentary last year, Archbishop Ward was accused of covering up two cases of sexual assault by priests in his diocese. Both priests were later jailed. In the program, the archbishop’s own clergy described him as “incompetent,” “unfit for office,” and “out of his depth.”
The archbishop is currently on sick leave, but says he is ready to return to work. However, his archdiocese is now under the care of Bishop Edward Regan of the neighboring Wrexham Diocese. Bishop Regan was appointed apostolic administrator by the Vatican.
Archbishop Ward told the Catholic Herald that a few disloyal priests exploited the pedophile scandals in order to remove him from office. “It puts every bishop in this country in danger if it takes only a few disgruntled priests to do this,” he said.
According to the Catholic Herald, Archbishop Puente has written to Archbishop Ward asking him to resign, on behalf of Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation of Bishops. If the archbishop refuses to go quietly, ultimately only the Pope could force him out.
Back to Catholic World Report November 2001 Table of Contents