PHILADELPHIA: Catholic Archbishop Steps Down Over Pedophilia Scandal

Embattled Philadelphia Archbishop Justin Rigali resigned today after years of growing scandal over his alleged shielding of pedophile priests.

Rigali, archbishop in Philadelphia since 2003, has been struggling to contain the pedophilia scandal in the wake of a Philadelphia grand jury report issued at the beginning of this year. Three priests, a monsignor and a church teacher were indicted as a result of the report. "We would have assumed," said the grand jury in a report, "by the year 2011, after all the revelations both here and around the world, that the church would not risk its youth by leaving them in the presence of priests subject to substantial evidence of abuse. That is not the case." The grand jury said that it found 37 such priests who have been kept in assignments that exposed them to children.

Rigali will be replaced by Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver. The Philadelphia archdiocese has over 1.5M members and is the sixth largest in the country.