WEBVTT

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It's about all the innocent victims,
children, young adults, teenagers,

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who because Donald World kept his lousy
mouth shut and did not do the right thing,

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we can only imagine how many people are
either suffering, and their families from

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alcoholism, drug addiction, not being able
to hold a job, marriages dissolved.

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Cardinal Donald World spent decades
carefully crafting an image of a reformer,

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tough on sex abuse, an image the public
bought wholesale.

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That image was eventually shattered,
but not until after years of damage to the

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church and to victims.

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Senior producer Christine Niles takes a
look at the recent arrest of a priest once

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in World's charge and the fallout from
World's past cover-ups.

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Abusing him by taking child porn images of
him in the restroom of this Target store

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in East Liberty.

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On December 7th, 2021, Paul George Spisak
was arrested after taking photos of a

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13-year-old boy at a Target in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania.

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Spisak was allegedly using his phone at an
angle under a bathroom stall to take nude

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images of the boy.

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When police arrived, Spisak tried to flee,
but was caught and taken into custody at

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the Allegheny County Jail.

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He was charged with invasion of privacy
and sexual abuse of children.

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It's not Spisak's first run-in with the
law.

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An incident 15 years ago at another
bathroom stall is nearly identical to this

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one.

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In fact, Spisak's fixation with underage
males stretches back decades, to his time

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as a priest in the Diocese of Pittsburgh,
under his bishop at the time, Donald

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Wuerl.

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Once considered a kingmaker, Cardinal
Wuerl was fawned over and fettered as

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Archbishop of Washington, hobnobbing with
powerful politicians, his power and

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influence stretching all the way to Rome,
where he had the Pope's ear.

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Wuerl was among Pope Francis's elite inner
circle, helping set the agenda at multiple

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synods in Rome.

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He was untouchable.

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Then came June 2018.

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Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, tonight
suspended from his public priestly duties,

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after an allegation he abused a teenager
in New York 47 years ago.

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Media exploded with news of Wuerl's
predecessor in D.C., powerbroker Cardinal

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Theodore McCarrick and his sexual assault
of a male minor, coined the Summer of

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Shame, revealing a ring of complicit
clergy who for years protected the

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homosexual predator, Wuerl the top U.S.

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cleric to do so.

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I have tried to do my very best to deal
with this whole question of allegations

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against a priest.

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Wuerl endured months of withering press
that summer after he appeared to be

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minimizing sex abuse.

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Remember, that, we're told, was decades
ago.

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Repeating his favorite refrain,
that McCarrick's abuse occurred a very

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long time ago, and misleading others about
his own actions.

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This claim goes back over decades and
decades.

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Did you ever move priests quietly to
another?

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That wasn't our process.

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Things only worsened after he was caught
lying about his knowledge of McCarrick's

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crimes.

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Were you aware of the rumors McCarrick was
having relationships with other priests?

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No, no.

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Turns out there was a 2004 abuse claim
against McCarrick involving Father Robert

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Sialek, and that not only had Wuerl known
about the sexual misconduct allegations,

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he's the one who reported them to the
Vatican.

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As damage control, Wuerl claimed he had
forgotten all about it.

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Cardinal Donald Wuerl is now saying he
forgot that he knew about sex abuse

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reports while he was the Bishop of
Pittsburgh.

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He writes in a new letter, quote,
it's important for me to accept personal

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responsibility and apologize for this
lapse in memory.

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I don't believe for one moment that he has
ever forgotten about it.

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A high school named after Wuerl was
vandalized, followed by the decision to

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remove his name.

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Once the grand jury report came out,
nearly 8,000 people signed a petition for

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Wuerl's name to be removed.

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Other increasing signs of dissatisfaction.

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Protesters were gathering regularly
outside St. Matthew's Cathedral,

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Wuerl's parish, and a petition began
circulating demanding that Wuerl resign,

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including a call from Washington deacon
James Garcia, refusing to serve any more

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masses with the Cardinal.

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A critical part of genuine healing
involves accountability.

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And inside the cathedral.

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Wuerl was jeered at by an angry
parishioner, who then stormed out.

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Then came Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò's
bombshell testimony in August,

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revealing a homosexual network in the
church, led by McCarrick, noting that

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Wuerl, quote, lies shamelessly in his
attempts to cover up McCarrick's sexual

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predation.

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And all the while, church leadership
carried on.

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Wuerl kept records of the abuse and the
cover-up.

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But perhaps the most devastating blow to
Wuerl that summer, precipitating his

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abrupt resignation, was the Pennsylvania
Grand Jury Report, where his name was

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cited 169 times.

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He was named throughout this report as one
of the bishops who helped cover up the

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crimes.

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Contrary to Wuerl's claims he'd always
been tough on priest sex abuse,

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the report exposed him as a protector of
predators.

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The public comments that he has made
directly contradict the church's own

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documents that we found in the secret
archives.

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Another fact hidden by Wuerl, he was named
in at least two multi-million dollar

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lawsuits as Bishop of Pittsburgh,
accused of covering up priestly sex abuse,

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leading to further abuse and even death.

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Of course, the sexual abuse was horrific,
but the abuse by working with the diocese

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was almost as bad.

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For years, Wuerl portrayed himself as
leader of the pack in implementing a

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zero-tolerance policy in Pittsburgh,
where he served as bishop for nearly two

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decades, from 1988 to 2006.

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Catholic and secular media bought the
story, praising Wuerl as an example in

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handling clergy sex abuse.

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Church Milton, however, was ahead of the
curve in not only predicting his downfall,

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but also exposing the lie about his
handling of clergy abuse before the grand

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jury report ever came out.

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A report where Wuerl's name is associated
in some way with approximately two dozen

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accused clergy, including Father George
Zerwas, Father Henry Kravchik,

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Father John Wellinger, Father William
Yockey, Father Leo Berchianti,

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Father John Crowley, Father Richard
Dorsch, Father John Hale, Father Lawrence

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O 'Connell, Father Ernest Paone,
and many others.

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Father George Zerwas was found dead in his
apartment in Havana, Cuba on the morning

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of May 27, 2001, suffering heart paralysis
after being shot in the neck with animal

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tranquilizer.

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He was a priest who was once part of a
pedophile ring in Pittsburgh.

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The Pennsylvania grand jury report reveals
Wuerl had paid him hush money in exchange

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for his silence on the crimes of fellow
clergy.

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In 1996, Zerwas informed the diocese that
he had knowledge of other Pittsburgh

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diocese priests' involvement in illegal
sexual activity.

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In exchange for this information,
he demanded that his sustenance payments

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be increased.

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Wuerl agreed.

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He asked for a statement in writing from
Zerwas disavowing any knowledge of the

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crimes.

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As soon as he got it, Bishop Wuerl
increased his monthly stipend.

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What were those crimes?

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Zerwas was part of a child sex ring
involving fathers Richard Zula,

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Robert Woke, and Francis Pucci,
all eventually indicted for sex crimes.

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They used whips and chains on teen altar
boys, plying them with drugs and alcohol,

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and passing them around for sex.

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George, one of Zerwas' victims,
testified before the grand jury that when

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he was 15, Zerwas took him to a parish
rectory where three other priests were

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present.

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They asked him to take off his clothes.

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They then drew an analogy to the image of
Christ on the cross and told George to

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remove his pants so that his pose would be
more consistent with the image of Christ

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in a loincloth.

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At that point, the priests began taking
Polaroid pictures of George.

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As the picture-taking continued,
the priests directed George to take off

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his underwear, exposing himself.

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George noted his photos were added to a
collection of similar photos of other teen

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boys.

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The teen boys chosen for grooming were
given gifts of gold chains with a cross.

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They were a signal to other predators that
the children had been desensitized to

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sexual abuse and were optimal targets for
further victimization.

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In 1988, Zula, Woke, and Pucci were
charged for their crimes, but Zerwas

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managed to escape prosecution.

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Instead of removing Zerwas from ministry,
Wuerl simply reassigned him to St.

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Scholastica Parish in Aspinwall.

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In fact, in spite of multiple abuse
complaints against Zerwas dating as far

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back as 1987, Wuerl would keep him in
active ministry for nearly a decade,

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moving him from parish to parish after
each allegation.

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In 1995, after Zerwas was placed on a
leave of absence, he moved to Cuba with

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his live-in boyfriend.

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There, Zerwas, who called himself the
Grand Duchess of Havana, facilitated sex

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trafficking, putting foreigners in touch
with Cuban prostitutes.

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Zerwas himself died at age 47 at the hands
of a young male prostitute.

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It was Zerwas's live-in boyfriend who
found his corpse.

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The priest had been murdered by a Cuban
rent boy he had picked up the night

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before.

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The rent boy, Abel Medina Valdez,
would later confess to killing Zerwas by

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shooting animal tranquilizer into his
neck, causing cardiac paralysis.

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Valdez also confessed to having murdered
two other gay foreigners.

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The U.S.

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government worked with Communist Cuba to
fly the priest's body back home,

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where Wuerl gave him a grand send-off,
holding a funeral at his boyhood parish of

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St. Alphonsus in Wexford, with two
bishops, 20 priests, and 100 mourners

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present.

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And Zerwas clothed in priestly vestments.

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Wuerl eulogized the pederast in glowing
terms, expressing confidence he was in

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heaven.

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It's very difficult, first of all,
to bury a priest who is still so young and

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with so much potential ahead of him.

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Wuerl never reported his hush money deal
with Zerwas to police, nor has he ever

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denied the secret payoff, conceding in
2018, quote, Today, we would have handled

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the Zerwas case much differently.

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Father Henry Kravchik made national news
in 2003, after a 19-year-old football

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player fell to his death from the church
rafters.

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Wide receiver Billy Gaines was a rising
star in the University of Pittsburgh's

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football team, there on a scholarship
after winning Player of the Year in his

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senior season at Urbana High School.

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A young life cut short, owing to the
negligence of a bishop who looked the

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other way.

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Gaines had been living at a vacant convent
next to Kravchik's parish, St. Anne's,

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after the priest invited him and his
roommate to live there when their

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apartment was destroyed by fire.

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Kravchik frequently invited Gaines to
drink with him.

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According to family, Gaines felt pressured
to comply because the priest was doing him

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a favor by allowing him to live at the
convent.

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The priest held an all-night cookout on
June 17, 2003, inviting Kravchik and other

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football players along, where he served
cocktails to the under-21 crowd,

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played drinking games, and watched
Playboy.

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Around 2.30 in the morning, after 8 to 10
drinks, Gaines climbed two flights of

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stairs, went to the attic, and clambered
into a crawlspace in the church ceiling,

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looking for mysterious markings or symbols
located there.

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The ceiling gave way, leading to a 25-foot
fall, Gaines crashing into a pew below.

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He suffered a fractured skull and spinal
injuries, dying 20 hours later.

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An autopsy shows Gaines' blood alcohol
level was at nearly twice the legal limit.

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His death made national news.

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World placed Kravchik on leave,
but it was too little, too late.

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Wuerl had been notified several times over
the course of years of Kravchik's habit of

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drinking with and homosexual advances on
young men.

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Those allegations were met with a
reprimand, Wuerl sending the priest away

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for psychiatric treatment before putting
him back in ministry, until the fatal

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accident in 2003.

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The priest pleaded guilty to involuntary
manslaughter and reckless endangerment,

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and was placed on seven years probation.

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The Gaines family filed a $75 million
federal lawsuit against Kravchik and the

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diocese for covering up the cleric's past
indiscretions, settling in 2006.

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That same year, two brothers contacted the
diocese to report that their other brother

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used to smoke pot and drink alcohol with
Father Kravchik, waking up one time to

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find the priest giving him oral sex.

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That brother ended up killing himself the
same year Wuerl was being installed as

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archbishop in Washington, D.C.

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If Wuerl had taken seriously all the
allegations against Kravchik years before,

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at least two young men might still be
alive today.

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Mike Ferencz, former contributor to the
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in the early

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2000s, reported on Gaines' death at the
time, and wrote a public letter to his

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parents.

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And I stated that their son should be
alive, because if they had warned the

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public, especially the colleges and
universities, about priests like John

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Wellinger, who like to prey on college
students, or any student for that matter,

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that the college students would be aware
of this and would know to stay away from

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the parties thrown by the priests and
bishops in the Oakland and Shadyside area.

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Ferencz is referring to Father John
Wellinger, another Pittsburgh priest

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accused of abusing multiple boys.

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One of them shot Ferencz's son in the head
in 1989, before turning the gun on

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himself.

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While the victim died, Ferencz's son
survived.

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Well, I had started investigating John
Wellinger in 1990 following the attempted

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murder of my son.

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The shooter may have been sexually abused
or abused in some fashion by John

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Wellinger.

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It was the start of Ferencz's decades-long
pursuit of truth in Pittsburgh.

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Unlike other journalists at the time,
Ferencz wasn't buying the story that Wuerl

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was tough on sex abuse, penning a 2009
article in the Pittsburgh Examiner titled,

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Donald Wuerl, Zero Tolerance or Zero
Credibility.

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He asked, does Donald Wuerl deserve the
zero tolerance tagline that is associated

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with his tenure as Bishop of Pittsburgh?

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Going on to say, there's reason for doubt,
plenty of doubt.

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Not only did Ferencz learn that Wuerl knew
far more about Wellinger than he let on,

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this was the case with multiple abuser
clergy.

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Wellinger was in fact one among 17 clerics
named in a multi-million dollar lawsuit

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filed by 32 abuse victims in 2004,
alleging a diocesan-wide cover-up of sex

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abuse, with Wuerl directly involved.

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It resulted in a $1.25 million settlement
in 2007.

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It was such chump change.

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It was the most ridiculous settlement
ever.

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I think they spent more on Zubik's
installation as bishop.

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So it was a ridiculous sum.

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And I feel sorry for those people who
settled.

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Another cleric named in that lawsuit,
Father Robert Castellucci.

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At the Savior's command and formed by
divine teaching...

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Wuerl knew of Castellucci's sex abuse of
boys as early as 1994, but kept him in

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ministry for nearly a decade, through
2002.

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Ed Stamara Jr. met with the diocese in
1994, including then-father, now-bishop,

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David Zubik, detailing sexual assault that
took place when he was 13 through 17,

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including masturbation, oral sex,
and attempted anal sex, sometimes at the

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rectory, sometimes in the priest's car.

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An October 22, 1994 letter from the victim
to Castellucci says, I was 13 or 14 when

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you talked me into masturbation parties,
only to offer me money later.

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Wuerl determined the allegations were
credible, but never reported them to

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police.

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The victim's eight-year-old brother was
also allegedly abused by Castellucci.

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The priest asked to retire, but Wuerl
refused, instead ordering him to St.

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Luke's Institute, a controversial clergy
rehab center in Silver Spring,

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Maryland.

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St. Luke recommended inpatient treatment,
but Castellucci instead asked Wuerl for a

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leave of absence to go to Ohio to take
care of his sick mother.

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Wuerl agreed, never informing police of
his movements, nor informing local

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Catholics who now have a sexual predator
as their neighbor.

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It led to an incident in Ohio in 1999,
where Castellucci was reported to police

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for giving a 17-year-old boy a
pornographic video and performing oral sex

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on him.

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It was only after this that Wuerl
suspended Castellucci, but he waited three

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more years before finally urging the
priest to withdraw from ministry.

20:34.590 --> 20:40.290
After even more allegations had surfaced,
Castellucci denies any wrongdoing.

20:41.050 --> 20:44.090
Stemera was among the 32 survivors who
sued the diocese.

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Wuerl should have never become a cardinal,
Stemera told the Washington Post in 2018.

20:50.350 --> 20:55.070
Those are the worst crimes, that there was
no one there to help, no one there to tell

20:55.070 --> 20:55.590
the truth.

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I tried, it didn't work.

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Then there's father William O'Malley,
who had a habit of inviting kids into his

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hot tub, and also lived with a 17-year-old
male, who shared a joint bank account with

21:09.970 --> 21:10.170
him.

21:10.710 --> 21:14.690
In 1997, O'Malley admitted to fondling an
11-year-old boy.

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Wuerl did not report him to police,
but instead sent him off to St. Luke's.

21:20.950 --> 21:27.490
From the grand jury report, on January 12,
1998, a confidential memorandum was sent

21:27.490 --> 21:33.150
to Wuerl advising that O'Malley was given
a diagnosis of ephebophilia, based on his

21:33.150 --> 21:37.750
admitted sexual interest in adolescence,
and that O'Malley was at a high risk for

21:37.750 --> 21:40.970
seeking emotional gratification with
adolescence.

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In spite of this, just four days later,
Wuerl wrote a memo in O'Malley's file

21:46.990 --> 21:52.390
stating, I expressed to him our desire to
help him in whatever way we can do to all

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of the things that are necessary to
present him for priestly ministry.

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That same year, Wuerl appointed O'Malley
to the diocesan tribunal.

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It should be noted that a portion of this
period of sexual abuse, from the end of

22:06.110 --> 22:13.030
1998 through 1999, occurred after Wuerl
placed O'Malley back into ministry as

22:13.030 --> 22:14.150
canonical consultant.

22:14.790 --> 22:19.050
Former Catholic priest Paul Spisak was in
handcuffs in a jail jumpsuit for his

22:19.050 --> 22:20.030
preliminary hearing.

22:20.410 --> 22:22.230
All charges were held against him.

22:23.030 --> 22:27.870
Father Paul Spisak is just the latest in a
long line of clerics Wuerl protected.

22:28.890 --> 22:33.530
Ordained in Pittsburgh in 1978,
Spisak moved through eight different

22:33.530 --> 22:39.130
parishes before being reported to the
diocese in 1998, after prisoners found

22:39.130 --> 22:43.910
pornographic magazines, tapes,
and internet material in Spisak's room

22:43.910 --> 22:47.530
that depicted homosexual and
sadomasochistic activity.

22:48.530 --> 22:53.070
This included pictures of underage boys he
took on vacations, showing their buttocks,

22:53.170 --> 22:56.970
and pictures of Spisak pulling down his
swim trunks and pulling down the boys'

22:57.210 --> 22:57.610
pants.

22:58.850 --> 23:01.050
Bishop Wuerl sent him off to St. Luke's.

23:01.650 --> 23:08.050
After months there, Wuerl returned Spisak
to ministry in July 1999, assigning him to

23:08.050 --> 23:09.950
St. Mary of Mercy Parish.

23:10.550 --> 23:15.190
This in spite of an evaluation letter from
St. Luke's just a month earlier,

23:15.670 --> 23:18.450
warning him the priest was still a danger
to children.

23:19.310 --> 23:23.650
Spisak has also acknowledged a sexual
attraction to minors as well as to adult

23:23.650 --> 23:23.990
men.

23:24.790 --> 23:29.870
Spisak is at risk to act out his
problematic behavior again, that is,

23:29.970 --> 23:34.770
use of pornography, compulsive
masturbation, and possible sexual activity

23:34.770 --> 23:37.050
either with minors or adults.

23:38.010 --> 23:43.310
And a year before that, Wuerl received
this diocesan evaluation.

23:44.210 --> 23:48.690
Spisak has both sexual and interpersonal
issues that are significant enough to

23:48.690 --> 23:50.090
warrant residential treatment.

23:50.930 --> 23:55.570
Spisak was diagnosed as having a sexual
disorder that is compulsive in nature and

23:55.570 --> 23:57.970
is currently manifested in his use of
porn.

23:58.490 --> 24:03.410
Some of the testing identified Spisak
shows a significant interest in grade

24:03.410 --> 24:08.350
school age males, and his interest in one
of the boys pictured in a photo found in

24:08.350 --> 24:12.270
the rectory began when the boy was in
seventh or eighth grade.

24:13.170 --> 24:18.050
Welcome him from the plane on to the... In
spite of ample warning about Spisak's

24:18.050 --> 24:25.890
tendencies, Wuerl left him in active
ministry from 1999 until 2002 when Spisak

24:25.890 --> 24:28.170
himself asked to withdraw from ministry.

24:29.010 --> 24:31.350
Wuerl finally suspended him the next year.

24:32.010 --> 24:37.630
Even so, he kept him on the diocesan
payroll up till the present, Spisak living

24:37.630 --> 24:41.830
at the St. John Vianney Manor,
a retirement home for clergy, where

24:41.830 --> 24:44.310
numerous other accused clergy also live.

24:45.610 --> 24:51.370
On April 21st, 2006, Spisak was arrested
after a man reported him recording him on

24:51.370 --> 24:55.870
camera from the rear corner of the
bathroom stall at South Hills Village Mall

24:55.870 --> 24:56.850
in Bethel Park.

24:57.610 --> 25:02.230
According to the Pennsylvania Grand Jury
Report, when initially approached by mall

25:02.230 --> 25:05.270
security, Spisak denied having a camera.

25:06.110 --> 25:09.490
Spisak then faked that he was ill and ran
into the bathroom.

25:10.270 --> 25:14.370
A security guard followed Spisak and saw
him flush the memory card from the camera

25:14.370 --> 25:15.350
down the toilet.

25:16.210 --> 25:19.130
Spisak pleaded guilty to disorderly
conduct.

25:19.810 --> 25:25.570
More than a decade later, in a 2017 police
interview, he admitted he had a sexual

25:25.570 --> 25:27.550
fixation with a male buttocks.

25:28.730 --> 25:34.010
The December 2021 incident in the Target
bathroom with a 13-year-old boy shows the

25:34.010 --> 25:36.150
fixation has never gone away.

25:36.890 --> 25:41.130
Neither was it taken seriously all those
years ago under Bishop Wuerl.

25:41.830 --> 25:47.550
Those are just a handful of the many cases
Wuerl mishandled and the terrible fallout

25:47.550 --> 25:50.350
resulting in more abuse and even death.

25:50.810 --> 25:55.590
The detail all his cases would take hours,
but they all feature the same modus

25:55.590 --> 26:00.410
operandi, failing to report clergy to
police, sending them off for treatment,

26:01.030 --> 26:03.010
shuffling them from parish to parish.

26:03.550 --> 26:07.890
A number of these priests were abruptly
retired by Wuerl in 2002.

26:08.690 --> 26:10.130
That's no coincidence.

26:10.910 --> 26:15.730
It's the same year the Boston Globe's
Spotlight team exposed massive priest sex

26:15.730 --> 26:18.590
abuse in Boston and in the wider church.

26:19.050 --> 26:24.010
It was then that Wuerl began reshaping the
narrative, selling the story he was tough

26:24.010 --> 26:27.910
on predator clergy and had a
zero-tolerance policy for abuse.

26:28.330 --> 26:31.150
As the record shows, that was a lie.

26:33.530 --> 26:38.010
Comments from William Camerata,
former head of Pennsylvania's Office of

26:38.010 --> 26:41.390
Children, Youth, and Families in
Pittsburgh, are enlightening.

26:41.970 --> 26:46.590
In 1988, Camerata called the newly
installed bishop telling Wuerl he believed

26:46.590 --> 26:50.610
the diocese was mandated to report child
sex abuse to civil authorities.

26:51.230 --> 26:52.810
Wuerl said he'd meet with him.

26:53.590 --> 26:58.990
From the Washington Post, Camerata arrived
to the chancery, quote, to instead find a

26:58.990 --> 27:03.830
monsignor and a lawyer for the diocese in
a conference room, unwilling to concede.

27:04.670 --> 27:08.110
I said to them, my position is you should
be reporting these.

27:08.490 --> 27:12.330
The church as an entity are mandated
reporters, Camerata said.

27:12.870 --> 27:15.750
The lawyer said, we have a different
opinion.

27:16.550 --> 27:18.910
That was the sum total of the meeting.

27:19.730 --> 27:21.910
That's how Wuerl's tenure began in
Pittsburgh.

27:22.210 --> 27:24.330
And that's how it continued.

27:24.850 --> 27:29.310
But Chris Matthews, who was an outspoken
victim of not only John Wellinger,

27:29.870 --> 27:37.190
but of the Pittsburgh diocese,
was quoted as saying that he considers

27:37.190 --> 27:42.170
Wuerl the most evil person I have ever
met.

27:43.630 --> 27:47.550
Evil says it all about Donald Wuerl.

27:48.630 --> 27:52.530
Evil says it all about Jeffrey Epstein.

27:53.730 --> 27:57.890
Evil says it all about Harvey Weinstein.

27:59.430 --> 28:02.090
It's one thing to say, gee, I don't like
that person.

28:02.190 --> 28:03.350
He has some bad habits.

28:03.690 --> 28:08.070
But evil, there's nothing worse.

28:09.530 --> 28:14.250
While Cardinal Wuerl's favorite refrain is
that clerical abuse happened decades and

28:14.250 --> 28:19.830
decades ago, as we see the fallout from
such abuse, and Wuerl's failure to handle

28:19.830 --> 28:22.470
it properly, continue to this very day.

28:23.170 --> 28:27.230
One cleric whose name came up repeatedly
in the Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report,

28:27.850 --> 28:32.250
Wuerl's right-hand man in handling
Pittsburgh abuse cases, was the director

28:32.250 --> 28:37.390
of priest personnel, who met with abuser
clergy and their victims, and knew where

28:37.390 --> 28:38.770
all the bodies were buried.

28:39.530 --> 28:45.290
That was Father David Zubik, today the
sitting bishop of Pittsburgh.

28:47.010 --> 28:49.230
Christine Niles, Church Militant,
Detroit.

29:03.880 --> 29:04.020
you