Cardinal Justin Rigali, Archbishop of Philadelphia resigned because of child sex abuse.
The accusations were covered by the Catholic Church and were later renewed. Pope Benedict XVI does not yet have any reactions to the issue.
The one who will be replacing him is Archbishop Charles Chaput of the US city of Denver.
According to the US grand juries in 2005 and 2011, the Church was covering the abuser priest and left him to still interact with children.
Cardinal Rigali has been rendering service to Philadelphia since 2003. Philadelphia Inquirer reported that his retirement is expected to be effective this year.
2005, the grand jury of Philadelphia said the predecessors of Cardinal Rigali, Cardinal Joseph Bevilacqua and Cardinal John Krol were known to be sexually abusing children but the priests were transferred among parishes.
Due to short span of time the panel was not able to push charges.
The archdiocese said that the report of the jury was “discriminatory” and “sensationalised”. During the archbishop’s testimony session, they said that the investigators were “bullying” him.
But despite of that, Cardinal Bevilacqua repeated his sincere and heartfelt apologies to the victim of his abuse.