Former Vatican Official Accuses Pope Francis of Knowingly Reinstating Abusive Cardinal

In a bombshell report, the Vatican’s former ambassador to the United States has accused Pope Francis of reinstating Cardinal Theodore McCarrick to a position of prominence despite knowing of McCarrick’s sexual abuse of priests, seminarians, and laypeople, including minors.

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò released an 11-page affidavit on Saturday alleging that Pope Benedict had imposed “canonical sanctions” on Cardinal McCarrick in 2009-2010 forbidding him from traveling, celebrating Mass in public, or participating in public meetings, but that Pope Francis later lifted these sanctions and made McCarrick a close personal advisor.

Presenting himself as a whistleblower, Viganò declares that bishops “must have the courage to tear down the culture of secrecy and publicly confess the truths we have kept hidden.”

The archbishop concludes by calling on Pope Francis to resign his office as pope.

Now that “the corruption has reached the very top of the Church’s hierarchy,” he says, “my conscience dictates that I reveal those truths regarding the heart-breaking case of the Archbishop Emeritus of Washington, D.C., Theodore McCarrick, which I came to know in the course of [my] duties.”

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