first U.S. cardinal in history to resign<\/a>.<\/p>\nVigan\u00f2, 77, was the Holy See\u2019s apostolic nuncio, or ambassador, in Washington from 2011 until 2016. He has been a lightning rod within the Vatican who lost a power struggle in Rome under Benedict, emerged as a Francis critic and reportedly ordered the halt of an investigation into alleged sexual relations between an archbishop in Minnesota and seminarians.<\/p>\n
Jason Berry, who has written several investigative books about the Vatican, said he believes this is the first time a pope has been accused from within.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom within the Vatican hierarchy, from within the Roman Curia, I don\u2019t think anyone has ever publicly accused a pope of covering up for a sex abuser,\u201d Berry said. \u201cThat\u2019s why this is such a big deal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vigan\u00f2\u2019s letter said that McCar\u00adrick had been privately sanctioned under Benedict \u2014 though only after years of warnings about his alleged behavior toward seminarians and young priests \u2014 not toward minors. Vigan\u00f2 wrote that the measures, taken \u201cin 2009 or 2010,\u201d banned McCarrick from traveling, holding Mass or participating in public meetings.<\/b><\/p>\n
Yet McCarrick appears to have done essentially the opposite. He regularly appeared as a speaker and celebrant at church functions and represented the church in prominent foreign diplomatic efforts in places such as China and Iran. A video from 2013 shows Benedict warmly greeting McCarrick in Rome, at the pope\u2019s resignation (and the subsequent election of the new pope), where McCarrick gave round-the-clock television interviews and stayed at a seminary.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t immediately clear why a pope taking the dramatic step of suspending a cardinal from ministry, as Vigan\u00f2 said, wouldn\u2019t monitor McCarrick in any way.<\/p>\n
However, when the archdiocese of New York last year began its investigation into an altar boy\u2019s allegation against McCar\u00adrick \u2014 the first accusation involving a youth \u2014 the Vatican ambassador Archbishop Christophe Pierre told McCarrick to be less public while the probe was underway, a person familiar with McCar\u00adrick said Sunday. McCar\u00adrick nonetheless still appeared in public as he wished, the person said, including attending an ordination ceremony in May in his cardinal\u2019s garb.<\/p>\n
Vigan\u00f2\u2019s letter says that in 2013, he met Francis and told the new pope face to face that there was \u201ca dossier this thick\u201d about McCarrick. He says he then told Francis about Benedict\u2019s order that McCarrick remove himself from public life.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe corrupted generations of seminarians and priests and Pope Benedict ordered him to withdraw to a life of prayer and penance,\u201d Vigan\u00f2 says he told Francis. \u201cThe Pope did not make the slightest comment about those very grave words of mine and did not show any expression of surprise on his face, as if he had already known the matter for some time, and he immediately changed the subject.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barry Coburn, McCarrick\u2019s lawyer, said in a statement: \u201cThese are serious allegations. Archbishop McCarrick, like any other person, has a right to due process. He looks forward to invoking that right at the appropriate time.\u201d<\/p>\n
He declined to elaborate further.<\/p>\n
It was not possible to reach Benedict or his representatives. Francis has not commented previously about what he was told about McCarrick, and Vatican spokesman Greg Burke did not respond Sunday to requests seeking comment.<\/p>\n
In the divided American Catholic Church, Francis\u2019s comments and teachings about everything from immigration and global warming to the death penalty are frequently adopted or rebuffed along partisan lines.<\/p>\n
The Vigan\u00f2 document uses American culture-war lingo, such as \u201cright-wing\u201d and \u201cleft-wing,\u201d and concludes the letter by blaming \u201chomosexual networks\u201d for sexual abuse and corruption.<\/p>\n
Conservative American Catholics who have suspected Francis of surreptitiously opening the door for liberalizing changes around sex and marriage have in recent years focused on the increased acceptance of LGBT people. Common targets for right-wing blogs such as LifeSite and Church Militant are bishops and cardinals they deem too moderate or liberal. Constantly on this list is D.C.\u2019s Donald Wuerl, Chicago\u2019s Blas\u00e9 Cupich and Joseph Tobin of Newark. All are named by Vigan\u00f2 as being linked by \u201cwickedness.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement provided by the Archdiocese of Chicago, Cupich corrected details laid out by Vigan\u00f2 about the sequencing of two events in Cupich\u2019s career.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs for the rest of the \u2018testimony,\u2019 a thorough vetting of the former nuncio\u2019s many claims is required before any assessment of their credibility can be made,\u201d Cupich wrote.<\/p>\n
In the letter, Vigan\u00f2 described several figures who could corroborate parts of his account. Those people could not be reached Sunday.<\/p>\n
Before moving to the District, Vigan\u00f2 spent time as a delegate within the Secretary of State\u2019s office, working with the Vatican\u2019s embassies around the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can imagine Vigan\u00f2 wanted to unburden his conscience,\u201d said Marcello Pera, a retired professor who knows Vigan\u00f2, co-authored a book with Benedict and has spoken critically about the direction of the church under Francis.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe author is a reliable person who has suffered because of events,\u201d Pera said. \u201cHis warnings were not listened to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vigan\u00f2 was sent to Washington \u2014 reportedly as punishment \u2014 in 2011 and was there until May 2016. He arranged a controversial meeting between Francis and an American woman, Kim Davis, who had lost her job as a municipal clerk for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-gender couples. Allies of Francis alleged that Vigan\u00f2 had set up the pope and that Francis didn\u2019t intend to affirm Davis\u2019s cause.<\/p>\n
The letter also includes an allegation against Wuerl, D.C.\u2019s current archbishop and McCarrick\u2019s successor. He is a close ally of Francis and is already under scrutiny following a grand jury report in Pennsylvania <\/a>about clerical child sex abuse and an alleged coverup. Wuerl for years led the diocese of Pittsburgh.<\/p>\nVigan\u00f2 is vague in the allegation against Wuerl. The letter says \u201cobviously\u201d Wuerl knew about Benedict\u2019s restrictions on McCar\u00adrick because the then-ambassador, Pietro Sambi, was \u201cresponsible, loyal and direct\u201d and must have told him. Vigan\u00f2 says he brought up the subject himself with Wuerl, and he writes that Wuerl \u201cwas fully aware of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wuerl\u2019s spokesman, Ed McFadden, denied the report.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn spite of what Archbishop Vigan\u00f2\u2019s memo indicates, Cardinal Wuerl did not receive any documentation or information during his time in Washington regarding any actions taken against\u201d McCarrick, he said Sunday.<\/p>\n
Winnie Obike, who is running as a Republican for a seat in Maryland\u2019s House of Delegates and who has been circulating a petition demanding Wuerl\u2019s resignation over the Pennsylvania report, said Sunday that she thought Vigan\u00f2\u2019s letter made Wuerl seem even more culpable, and Francis as well. \u201cThe moral authority of Pope Francis is shattered in my mind,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Pitrelli reported from Moena, Italy. Boorstein reported from Washington. Julie Zauzmer in Washington contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\nThe Washington Post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Chico Harlan, Stefano Pitrelli and Michelle Boorstein, August 26, 2018 DUBLIN \u2014 A former Vatican ambassador to the United States has alleged in an 11-page letter that Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis \u2014 among other top Catholic Church officials \u2014 had been aware of sexual misconduct allegations against former D.C. archbishop Cardinal Theodore […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4309"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4309"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4310,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4309\/revisions\/4310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}