DUBLIN, Ireland — A former papal ambassador to the U.S. has claimed that Pope Francis knew as early as 2013 about charges that the former archbishop of Washington, ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, had been sexually active with seminarians and priests and that Pope Benedict XVI had privately disciplined him over the charges.
In a letter published by two conservative Catholic outlets, LifeSiteNews and the National Catholic Register, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò wrote that Pope Francis had ignored then-Cardinal McCarrick’s record and rehabilitated him as a kingmaker in the U.S. episcopate.
The allegations, if proven, would be extremely damaging to Pope Francis, who has been repeatedly accused of not responding effectively to the church’s sex-abuse crisis. Viganò called on Pope Francis to step down for the good of the church. “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,” Viganò wrote.
The charges come during a delicate papal visit to Ireland that has been dominated by concerns over the church’s global sex-abuse crisis. On Saturday, Pope Francis met privately with Irish abuse victims and decried the abuse in a speech to Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar and other dignitaries in Dublin Castle. But prominent abuse victims swiftly expressed disappointment that Pope Francis hadn’t announced specific remedies or admitted what victims have alleged as Vatican responsibility for past coverups.
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
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