(Eagle News) — A former top Vatican official and former papal envoy to Washington called for the resignation of the Catholic Church’s Pope Francis saying he did not immediately act when he informed him of sexual abuses committed by a former Catholic cardinal, Theodore McCarrick, way back June 2013.
This revelation and call for the Catholic pontiff’s resignation came from Italian Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò who claimed in an 11-page letter-testimony that Francis even repealed sanctions previously imposed on McCarrick by the previous Catholic pope, Benedict XVI in the late 2000s.
Vigano said Francis even made McCarrick one of his “trusted” counselors.
He said Francis had led the Catholic Church “into error”, and should acknowledge his mistakes by resigning.
“Francis is abdicating the mandate which Christ gave to Peter to confirm the brethren. Indeed, by his action he has divided them, led them into error, and encouraged the wolves to continue to tear apart the sheep of Christ’s flock,” Vigano, the Apostolic Nuncio to US from 2011 to 2016, said in the English translation of his testimony provided by LifeSiteNews, a conservative outlet that was among the first to report his testimony, along with the National Catholic Register.
“In this extremely dramatic moment for the universal Church, he must acknowledge his mistakes and, in keeping with the proclaimed principle of zero tolerance, Pope Francis must be the first to set a good example for cardinals and bishops who covered up McCarrick’s abuses and resign along with all of them,” Vigano said in his letter.
The news about Vigano’s testimony was first reported by veteran Catholic journalist Edward Pentin of the National Catholic Register in tandem with LifeSiteNews.
Vigano said that he had personally told Francis in June 2013, as soon as he was elected as pope, about McCarrick’s sexual abuse of seminarians and priests.
McCarrick was the former Archbishop Emeritus of Washington.
Vigano said that the Catholic pope Francis did not act on the allegations against McCarrick even after he had been informed of this, and accused the Catholic leader of covering this up together with several other Catholic senior prelates.
Vigano’s letter was dated August 22, 2018. The Italian archbishop served as apostolic nuncio in Washington D.C. from 2011 to 2016.
In an official translation of Vigano’s testimony by Diane Montagna of LifeSitenews.com which first broke the story together with Catholic journalist Pentin, the former Catholic envoy to Washington said that Francis actually “continued to cover” for McCarrick. (Montagna has served as a translator for the English edition of the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano.)
-Total transparency-
“My conscience requires me also to reveal facts that I have experienced personally, concerning Pope Francis, that have a dramatic significance, which as Bishop, sharing the collegial responsibility of all the bishops for the universal Church, do not allow me to remain silent, and that I state here, ready to reaffirm them under oath by calling on God as my witness,” Vigano’s letter read.
“Pope Francis has repeatedly asked for total transparency in the Church and for bishops and faithful to act with parrhesia. The faithful throughout the world also demand this of him in an exemplary manner. He must honestly state when he first learned about the crimes committed by McCarrick, who abused his authority with seminarians and priests,” Vigano said.
“In any case, the Pope learned about it from me on June 23, 2013 and continued to cover for him. He did not take into account the sanctions that Pope Benedict had imposed on him and made him his trusted counselor along with Maradiaga,” he said referring to Catholic Cardinal Rodriguez Maradiaga, current Catholic Archbishop of Tegucigalpa and President of Caritas Internationalis. Maradiaga comes from Honduras.
-Cover-up-
Vigano, in his letter testimony, said that Francis had also appointed cardinals and archbishops who were known to have been protectors of clergy abuse.
“In Honduras, a scandal as huge as the one in Chile is about to be repeated. The Pope defends his man, Cardinal Rodriguez Maradiaga, to the bitter end, as he had done in Chile with Bishop Juan de la Cruz Barros, whom he himself had appointed Bishop of Osorno against the advice of the Chilean Bishops. First he insulted the abuse victims. Then, only when he was forced by the media, and a revolt by the Chilean victims and faithful, did he recognize his error and apologize, while stating that he had been misinformed, causing a disastrous situation for the Church in Chile, but continuing to protect the two Chilean Cardinals Errazuriz and Ezzati,” Vigano’s testimony as translated by Montagna said.
Vigano further said that Francis also protected McCarrick even after he had told the pope in June 2013 about his thick dossier on sexual misconduct.
Pope Francis in June 2018 accepted the resignation of Cardinal McCarrick, who is accused of sexually abusing a teenager nearly five decades ago, the Vatican said on July 28, 2018. McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington, was removed from the ministry in June after a review board found there was “credible” evidence that he had assaulted the teen while working as a priest in New York in the early 1970s.
/ AFP PHOTO / Nicholas KAMM
“Even in the tragic affair of McCarrick, Pope Francis’s behavior was no different. He knew from at least June 23, 2013 that McCarrick was a serial predator. Although he knew that he was a corrupt man, he covered for him to the bitter end; indeed, he made McCarrick’s advice his own, which was certainly not inspired by sound intentions and for love of the Church. It was only when he was forced by the report of the abuse of a minor, again on the basis of media attention, that he took action [regarding McCarrick] to save his image in the media,” his testimony as translated in English by Montagna read.
“Now in the United States a chorus of voices is rising especially from the lay faithful, and has recently been joined by several bishops and priests, asking that all those who, by their silence, covered up McCarrick’s criminal behavior, or who used him to advance their career or promote their intentions, ambitions and power in the Church, should resign.”
“But this will not be enough to heal the situation of extremely grave immoral behavior by the clergy: bishops and priests. A time of conversion and penance must be proclaimed. The virtue of chastity must be recovered in the clergy and in seminaries. Corruption in the misuse of the Church’s resources and of the offerings of the faithful must be fought against. The seriousness of homosexual behavior must be denounced,” Vigano said.
“The homosexual networks present in the Church must be eradicated,” he stressed.
“And how many other evil pastors is Francis still continuing to prop up in their active destruction of the Church!” the former papal envoy said in his impassioned letter.
Vigano said he wrote his testimony to break the “conspiracy of silence” in the Catholic Church.
He also “implore(d) everyone, especially Bishops, to speak up in order to defeat this conspiracy of silence that is so widespread.”
The Vatican said it had no comment to make on the allegations.
Vigano was appointed as Apostolic Nuncio to Washington in August 2011 by Francis’ predecessor Catholic Pope Benedict.
He submitted his resignation in January 2016 when he turned 75.
It was only on June 20, 2018, that Catholic Cardinal McCarrick was removed as a cardinal by Francis after the public revelation that the cardinal had abused a minor and two other seminarians.
(Eagle News Service)