Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation of Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick May 16 and named Bishop Donald W. Wuerl of Pittsburgh to succeed him as archbishop of Washington.

The pope also accepted the resignation of Bishop Joseph L. Imesch of Joliet, Ill., and appointed Bishop J. Peter Sartain of Little Rock, Ark., as his successor. The changes were announced in Washington by Archbishop Pietro Sambi, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

Cardinal McCarrick has headed the Archdiocese of Washington since 2001 and previously served as archbishop of Newark and bishop of Metuchen, both in New Jersey, and as an auxiliary bishop in the New York Archdiocese.

As canon law requires of all bishops, the cardinal submitted his resignation to Pope Benedict when he turned 75 July 7. But he announced at a September meeting with archdiocesan priests that the pope had asked him to stay on.

Archbishop Wuerl, 65, has been bishop of Pittsburgh since 1988 and is well known for his nationally syndicated television program, "The Teaching of Christ," and his best-selling adult catechism of the same name. His most recent book, "The Catholic Way," was published by Doubleday in 2001.

Appointed an auxiliary bishop of Seattle in 1985, he also served as a seminary rector for five years and worked at the Vatican for 10 years under Cardinal John J. Wright, a former bishop of Pittsburgh who headed the Congregation for the Clergy.

In his new post, Archbishop Wuerl will be spiritual leader of a Catholic population estimated at 579,000 in a total population of 2.6 million. The Pittsburgh Diocese has some 800,000 Catholics in a total population of more than 1.9 million.

His installation as archbishop of Washington was scheduled for June 22.

Born in New York, Cardinal McCarrick was ordained a priest on May 31, 1958 and after ordination was assigned to The Catholic University of America in Washington. From 1965 to 1969 he was president of the Catholic University of Puerto Rico.

He returned to New York in 1969 as archdiocesan associate secretary for education, and the following year he became secretary to New York's Cardinal Terence Cooke. He was named an auxiliary bishop of New York in 1977, the first bishop of the newly formed Diocese of Metuchen in 1981 and archbishop of Newark in 1986.

He was named to the College of Cardinals less than three weeks after his installation as head of the Washington Archdiocese.

Donald William Wuerl, born in Pittsburgh, received seminary training in Ohio, Washington and Rome before his Dec. 17, 1966, ordination in Rome. He worked at the Vatican (1969-79), returning to Pittsburgh after Cardinal Wright's death to serve as vice rector and then rector of St. Paul's College Seminary. In 1982 he was appointed executive secretary to Bishop John A. Marshall of Burlington, Vt., for a papally-mandated study of U.S. seminaries being conducted by Bishop Marshall.

Named an auxiliary bishop for Seattle on Dec. 3, 1985, he was ordained to the episcopacy by Pope John Paul II on Jan. 6, 1986. Following a two-year Vatican investigation of Seattle Archbishop Raymond G. Hunthausen, the Vatican directed the archbishop in September 1986 to delegate to Bishop Wuerl final decision-making authority over several aspects of church life.

He was given complete authority over liturgy, the archdiocesan church court, seminarians and priestly formation, laicized priests and moral issues of health care and ministry to homosexuals.

Archbishop Hunthausen's authority was restored in May 1987. Bishop Wuerl was named the 11th bishop of Pittsburgh and installed there on Feb. 12, 1988.

Bishop Wuerl began a three-year term as chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Catechesis in November 2004 and also serves on the Committee on Education's Subcommittee on "Sapientia Christiana" and as a consultant to the Task Force on Catholic Bishops and Politicians, chaired by Cardinal McCarrick.

Joseph Leopold Imesch, who turns 75 June 21, is best known nationally for his service as chairman of the bishops' Committee on Women in Society and in the Church and his involvement for nine years in efforts to write a pastoral letter on women's concerns.

A native of Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich., he was ordained Dec. 16, 1956 and studied theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. Upon his return to Detroit, he held several parish posts, was secretary to Detroit Cardinal John Dearden (1959-71), was pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows Parish in Farmington, and was appointed an auxiliary bishop in Detroit on Feb. 20, 1973.

In August 1979, he became bishop of Joliet, a diocese with about 637,000 Catholics in a total population of nearly 1.8 million.

James Peter Sartain, who will be installed June 27 as the new bishop of Joliet, was born in Memphis and ordained a priest of the Diocese of Memphis July 15, 1978.

In addition to various parish assignments, then-Father Sartain served the Memphis Diocese as director of vocations, secretary for priests and deacons, vicar for temporal administration and for clergy personnel, chancellor and moderator of the curia, and vicar general.

He was serving as vicar general and pastor of St. Louis Church in Memphis when he was appointed bishop of Little Rock Jan. 4, 2000. He was ordained a bishop March 6 that year.

---CNS