Cardinal offers to keep a hand in public policy in retirement

Published: 2006-06-23

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- After decades of regularly testifying before Congress and attending White House meetings on public policy, Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick said that although he's now retired as Washington's archbishop he's open to keeping a hand in the political scene. The pope accepted Cardinal McCarrick's resignation May 16 and named Bishop Donald W. Wuerl of Pittsburgh as his successor. He continued as apostolic administrator of the archdiocese until Archbishop Wuerl's June 22 installation. Cardinal McCarrick said his willingness to testify, give public speeches and otherwise try to influence public policy came about because of his personal contact with the difficult situations in which people live. "I guess I feel deeply about these things," he said in a June 18 interview with Catholic News Service. "Because of that you want to try to help. When first ordained a priest, I was in Latin America, so I became interested in their problems. When I was first ordained a bishop (in New York), I was in Harlem, so I became interested in those topics. It's been part of my life," Cardinal McCarrick continued. "I hope I was prudent in the way I approached it. But I feel strongly about this. That's why I loved Pope John Paul II so much. The dignity of the human person was his great mantra and I believe in that."

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