Wuerl's father worked nights weighing freight cars for the Pennsylvania Railroad, and served in the US Navy during World War II.

[7] After his ordination, Wuerl was assigned as assistant pastor at St. Rosalia Parish in Pittsburgh's Greenfield neighborhood and as priest-secretary to Bishop John Wright.

[18] In February 1987, the Vatican formed a commission of US bishops, headed by Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, to investigate the situation between Wuerl and Hunthausen in Seattle.

In 2003, Wuerl conducted a $2.5 million fundraising campaign to create the Catholic Charities Free Health Care Center, serving the uninsured working poor.

[29] In September 2010, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith named Wuerl as its delegate in the United States for facilitating the implementation of the apostolic constitution Anglicanorum coetibus.

[31] On November 20, 2010, Benedict XVI elevated Wuerl to the College of Cardinals in a public consistory held at Saint Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.

[43] Wuerl is said to have worked as a consensus builder on ideological conflicts over issues such as liturgical translation and communion for politicians favoring abortion rights for women during the 1990s and 2000s.

[3] Reverend Thomas J. Reese, a Jesuit priest and journalist, said in 2006 that "[Wuerl is] quite orthodox theologically, but he doesn't like to play cop; he's not an authoritarian person.

"[44] In August 2018, Reese described him as an ideological moderate with regard to Catholic theological disputes, stating, "He's not an old leftie, he's not a right-wing culture warrior. ...

"[45] Journalist John L. Allen Jr. in December 2018 said that Wuerl "was able to forge behind-the-scenes consensus because he was trusted by virtually all parties as someone who wouldn't embarrass them in public, and because he was seen as at least somewhat sympathetic to their points of view.

In cases where politicians and officeholders take policy positions that clash with church doctrine, Wuerl said the decision to offer communion should be made case-by-case: "Our primary job is to teach and try to convince people.

"[49] On November 26, 2009, Wuerl signed an ecumenical statement, known as the Manhattan Declaration, calling on evangelicals, Catholics, and Eastern Orthodox Christians not to comply with rules and laws permitting abortion, same-sex marriage, and other practices that go against their religious consciences.

[52] On the same day the archdiocese, though expressing its view that the bill did not adequately protect religious liberty, nonetheless affirmed its commitment to serving the needs of the poor and its hope for "working in partnership with the District of Columbia consistent with the mission of the Catholic Church.

Wuerl said the document was aimed at some theologians in Asia who were attempting to incorporate Hindu, Islamic and Buddhist tenets into the Catholic interpretation of the Gospels.

However, he stated that document acknowledged that there are elements in non-Christian scriptures "by which countless people throughout the centuries have been and still are able today to nourish and maintain their life-relationship with God.

"[57] In 2007, Benedict XVI issued the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum (2007), which authorized priests to celebrate mass using either the 1969 or 1962 editions of the Roman Missal.

[58] Wuerl established a special committee "to assist pastors in evaluating and responding to requests for the regular and public celebration" of the 1962 form of Mass.

[59] In 2003, journalist Ann Rodgers-Melnick wrote in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that Wuerl was as being proactive as bishop in confronting sexual abuse allegations against clergy.

[3] However, the Pennsylvania grand jury investigation report released in August 2018 criticized Wuerl for his handling of some sexual abuse cases.

[61][62] In September 1988, when Wuerl was the bishop of Pittsburgh, he accepted a dinner invitation from a family suing the diocese for sexual abuse by a priest.

"[72] On August 20, 2018, Ave Maria Press announced it had indefinitely postponed the release of a book written by Wuerl titled What Do You Want to Know?

By August 2018, thousands of people in the Diocese of Pittsburgh had signed a petition to rename Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic High School.

Winters criticized the media response to the report and said that it was weaponized by far-right groups such as Church Militant and LifeSiteNews in order to take down Wuerl and attack Pope Francis.

Steinfels noted that a third or more of the accusations were revealed after the Dallas Charter and claimed that such "inaccurate and incomplete" reports were used to push Wuerl out of office.

[89] Former priest Robert Ciolek, who had made the allegations, told the Post that Wuerl shared the information in 2004 with then-Vatican ambassador Gabriel Montalvo Higuera.

After the publication of the Post story, both the Diocese of Pittsburgh and the Archdiocese of Washington admitted that Wuerl knew about Ciolek's allegations in 2004 and did report them to the Vatican.

[91] On August 7, 2020, Wuerl was named as a defendant in a new sex abuse lawsuit was filed in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court.

[92] The lawsuit claimed that Wuerl promised in 1994 that Reverend Leo Burchianti, who was accused of sexually abusing at least eight boys, would not receive a new church assignment.

Wuerl and then-Father David Zubik later gave Burchianti a voluntary work assignment at St. John Vianney Manor, a home for retired priests.

[96] In the letter of acceptance, Francis praised Wuerl as a "model bishop" and said "You have sufficient elements to justify your actions and distinguish between what it means to cover up crimes or not to deal with problems, and to commit some mistakes.