Order of Malta no relation diocesan bishop
Bishop of Pittsburgh
Wuerl was appointed as the eleventh bishop of the Diocese of Pittsburgh on February 12, 1988 by Pope John Paul II.  He was installed on March 25, 1988.One of the biggest problems facing the diocese was financial in nature and came from its school system. Many of the parishes were built when Catholic immigrants were swelling the population of Pittsburgh to work in the steel mills. During this era, parishes were established along ethnic lines so that parishioners could attend services in their native tongues and maintain their national traditions. This resulted in having as many as six-to-eight parishes within blocks of each other. After World War II, there was a major effort to build a school for every parish. These schools were usually staffed by nuns who were given nominal compensation. This system began to break down in the 1970s. First, the Baby Boom subsided, resulting in a reduction in student population. Second, Catholics became less likely to send their children to Catholic schools. Third, during this period there was a massive culture shift among nuns, partially in response to Vatican II, that resulted in many sisters choosing missions unrelated to education. They had to be replaced as teachers with lay staff paid market salaries.Wuerl asked his committee of lay advisors to address the debt and deficit spending associated with Catholic education in Pittsburgh. In 1988, that committee determined that 48 of the then 333 parishes owed a total of $5.6 million. A rescue plan was made public in February 1989,  Wuerl announcing that $1.1 million owed to the diocese for insurance and the Parish Share Program would be forgiven. Indebted parishes would be given low-interest loans to refinance their other obligations. Despite the financial condition of the diocese, Wuerl decided to expand health services. He worked with hospitals and community groups to create a group home for people with AIDS. In 2003, Wuerl conducted a  $2.5 million fundraising campaign to create the Catholic Charities Free Health Care Center. The clinic primarily serves the uninsured working poor.In 1989, Wuerl merged Sacred Heart and St. Paul Cathedral High Schools to establish Oakland Catholic High School (all three female-only schools) in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, using the buildings of St. Paul Cathedral High School.Wuerl launched and hosted a television program, The Teaching of Christ, in 1990. He taught at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh as a distinguished service professor. Wuerl has served as a chaplain since 1999 for the Order of Malta, Federal Association USA, attached to the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Wuerl has also written regular columns in Columbia, the major publication of the Knights of Columbus in the United States.Under Wuerl, the diocese had to reorganize itself in response to demographic changes, the decline of the steel industry, and the Church's weakened financial position. That process was officially completed in March 1994. Wuerl closed 73 church buildings, which included 37 churches, and reduced 331 parishes by 117 through merging. The diocese of  Pittsburgh was operating 214 parishes when Wuerl left in June 2006 to become archbishop of Washington. Wuerl's plan, The Parish Reorganization and Revitalization Project, is now used as a model for other dioceses seeking parish suppression.
no relation