Washington • District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine said Tuesday that his office has launched an investigation into sexual abuse by Catholic clergy in the Archdiocese of Washington, the latest in a string of state-level law enforcement officials now probing the Catholic Church’s handling of abuse complaints.
The investigation, announced by Racine at a regularly scheduled breakfast among Washington’s elected officials, will bring scrutiny to Catholic leaders who have come under intense criticism in recent months.
Washington’s archbishop, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, resigned this month amid uproar over a Pennsylvania grand jury report that depicted systemic abuse across the state’s Catholic Church, including in Pittsburgh, where he had previously been a bishop.