Numerous state attorneys general are opening investigations into clergy sex abuse in the Roman Catholic Church in the wake of Pennsylvania’s grand jury report released in August, cataloging allegations of heinous sex crimes across the state over more than 70 years. On the heels of that bombshell came an 11-page Testimony — followed by addenda in September and October — by a Vatican prelate-turned-whistleblower, accusing Pope Francis of helping cover up sexual misconduct among high-ranking church ecclesiastics and calling on the pontiff to resign.

Once at the reporting end of the 2012 Vatileaks scandal, retired Archbishop Carl Maria Vigano specifically targeted 83-year-old ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, whose decades-long priestly and episcopal career is riddled with scandal. Vigano claims Pope Francis lifted canonical sanctions imposed by Pope Benedict XVI on McCarrick intended to remove him from public ministry, despite Vatican knowledge of the cardinal’s “gravely immoral” history. Vigano also indicted Cardinal Donald Wuerl, who resigned as archbishop of Washington, D.C., in October amid accusations that he did not stop abuse in Pennsylvania, where he served as bishop from 1988 until 2006.

With other states launching investigations into alleged clerical sex crimes and coverup, should we wonder what their research will reveal? In 2001, a year before accounts of systemic perversion came to light in Boston, Crisis Magazine reported, “Without exception, every one of the 188 dioceses in the American Catholic Church has faced or is facing claims of child sex abuse.”

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