PITTSBURGH - Former Pittsburgh Bishop Donald Wuerl, now Archbishop of Washington, D.C., addressed rumors that in the fall of 2005, he was arrested in connection with a disturbance outside of St. Paul's Cathedral as he was preparing to enter the church to say Mass on All Saints Day. Wuerl explained that he was caught in a crowd that pushed forward to gain entrance to the Cathedral."Myself and other individuals in the front were really not even in control of ourselves," he said. "We couldn't control ourselves because of the force from behind." Officer Hoehn aggressively attempted to maintain order. "I told him who I was, and I told him I didn't appreciate the way he was treating my fellow Catholics, and I didn't appreciate the manner in which he represented the city of Pittsburgh," he said. "He expressed back to me that he didn't care for my opinion and didn't care what I had to say. But I didn't back down." The Archbishop said he used language that he shouldn't have. "I said, 'You are acting uncharitably,' is what I said." But, he added, "at no time did I physically contact the officer."
Officer Hoehn then handcuffed him and put him into a confessional in the back of the Cathedral. He sat, handcuffed and alone, for 10 or 15 minutes, he said. He was then taken into a security office St. Paul's maintains, and he and Officer Hoehn shook hands "like men," and agreed they both could have handled the situation better. Archbishop Wuerl said such incidents are common at St. Paul's Cathedral on All Saints Day.
