The Vatican has released a long-anticipated 460-page report on former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who was stripped of his title after being found guilty of homosexual abuse toward minors.
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, who served as the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States from 2011 to 2016, has accused Pope Francis of having protected and enabled McCarrick, and even called on the pontiff to resign over it. According to Viganò, Francis rose to the head of the Catholic Church with McCarrick’s help and relied on the disgraced cardinal’s skills as a progressive powerbroker and prolific fundraiser in Washington, D.C.
The new report confirms many of Viganò’s accusations, except — curiously — those involving Francis, a fact that the church is taking as an “exoneration” of the Pope.
The report states that no records “support Viganò’s account and evidence as to what he said [to the pope] is sharply disputed” and suggests that Pope Francis merely continued to treat McCarrick the way Pope Benedict XVI had before him.
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“Neither Pope Francis, nor Cardinal Parolin, nor Cardinal Ouellet lifted or modified the prior ‘indications’ related to McCarrick’s activities or residence,” the Vatican report declares. “McCarrick generally continued his religious, humanitarian and charitable work during this period, sometimes with renewed focus and energy, but also with increased difficulty due to his advanced age.”
It then goes on to claim that “In the 2013 to 2017 period, McCarrick did not act as a diplomatic agent for the Holy See, or with any official mandate from the Secretariat of State.”
Yet this narrative does not match the observations of those who have kept an eye on Vatican affairs over the years. For example, in a 2014 Washington Post article, veteran Vatican journalist David Gibson painted a picture of McCarrick as having been restored to activity after years of laying low under Benedict — an inactivity Viganò claims was due to the Holy See having become aware of McCarrick’s deviancy.
“McCarrick is one of a number of senior churchmen who were more or less put out to pasture during the eight-year pontificate of Benedict XVI,” Gibson wrote. “But now Francis is pope, and prelates like Cardinal Walter Kasper (another old friend of McCarrick’s) and McCarrick himself are back in the mix, and busier than ever.”
McCarrick “retired in 2006 and was sort of spinning his wheels under Benedict,” Gibson wrote. “Then Francis was elected, and everything changed.”
“McCarrick travels regularly to the Middle East, and was in the Holy Land for Francis’ visit in May,” Gibson related, noting that the pope “teased McCarrick again when he saw him.”
“Sometimes McCarrick’s travels abroad are at the behest of the Vatican, sometimes on behalf of Catholic Relief Services,” he wrote, adding that Francis, “who has put the Vatican back on the geopolitical stage, knows that when he needs a savvy back channel operator he can turn to McCarrick, as he did for the Armenia trip.”
The new report reveals that Pope John Paul II was aware of sexual misconduct allegations against McCarrick. The New York Times notes:
In 1999, when Mr. McCarrick was being considered to take over the Archdiocese of New York, Cardinal John O’Connor of New York wrote a six-page letter to the Vatican’s ambassador to the U.S. He raised concerns that Mr. McCarrick had asked young adult men to sleep in his bed with him and that some priests had experienced psychological trauma from Mr. McCarrick’s inappropriate behavior.
“I regret that I would have to recommend very strongly against such promotion, particularly if to a Cardinatial See,” Cardinal O’Connor said. “Nevertheless, I subject my comments to higher authority and most particularly our Holy Father.”
The report also states that Pope Benedict ousted McCarrick as Bishop of Washington but decided not to investigate him. Also per the report, the Vatican blames three American bishops for providing misleading information that caused the allegations to initially be dismissed as rumors and Pope Francis did nothing until 2017 because he believed the allegations had already been reviewed by Pope John Paul II.
Ultimately, it sounds like a lot of passing of the proverbial buck.
Archbishop Viganò has recently authored letters to President Trump warning him that riots in America are run by a “masonic” Deep State (in a letter the president tweeted) and encouraging him to oppose the “Great Reset” program for global control being pushed by the World Economic Forum and other Deep State organs.
