Pittsburgh, Pa., Aug 21, 2018 / 15:28 pm
A Catholic high school named after Cardinal Donald Wuerl was vandalized Monday, following continued criticism of the cardinal's handling of sex abuse allegations during his time as bishop of Pittsburgh.
Red spray paint covered the cardinal's name on the sign for Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic High School on Monday morning.
Police said they received a call at 7 a.m. on August 20 about the Pittsburgh-area school's entrance sign, which had been painted over on both sides, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Students at Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic High School returned for the first day of classes to find someone had spray-painted over Wuerl's name on a sign outside the school. <a href="https://t.co/P9E8plLeOv">https://t.co/P9E8plLeOv</a> <a href="https://t.co/MYAwhL810p">pic.twitter.com/MYAwhL810p</a></p>— KDKA (@KDKA) <a href="https://twitter.com/KDKA/status/1031707501044133888?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 21, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The vandalism took place amid a call for the school to change its name, removing Cardinal Wuerl from the title. A petition calling for a name change has received more than 7,000 signatures.
The Diocese of Pittsburgh has not decided if the school's name will change, but North Catholic Principal Luke Crawford said an executive session will be held to consider it. Recommendations for a new name would be forwarded to a group overseeing the diocese's Catholic schools and ultimately decided by Bishop David Zubik of Pittsburgh.