Petition begun to remove Cardinal Wuerl's name from North Catholic High School

CRANBERRY, Pa. — Channel 11 is reporting on the growing pressure for Cardinal Wuerl's name to be removed from North Catholic High School after the release of a grand jury report on child sexual abuse in the church where his name was mentioned several times.

An online petition was started and there are several calls on social media for that name change to happen immediately.

A school in Baltimore has already made a name change after yesterday's grand jury report said that Cardinal William H. Keeler hid abuse while he was the bishop of Harrisburg.

Wuerl was mentioned nearly 200 times in the grand jury report. He's accused of leading a massive coverup of child sex abuse by priests when he was the bishop of Pittsburgh.

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His name was added to North Catholic in 2013 when it moved from Troy Hill to Cranberry, a move many alumni didn't like.

Wuerl released a statement Tuesday saying he tried to protect children while he was the bishop. Current Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik, who worked directly under Wuerl, adamantly denied a coverup and said Wuerl was passionate about preventing child abuse.

Channel 11 confirmed with the Archdiocese of Washington that it just took down a website highlighting Wuerl's child protection efforts that was just created last week.

The archdiocese said it was meant to provide additional context to Wuerl's history that was not included in the grand jury report, but heavy criticism led to the decision to take it down.

Cox Media Group