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John Paul II and Benedict XVI ignored Cardinal McCarrick's abuses, according to a Vatican report

2020-11-10T16:33:06.344Z


The long-awaited and unusual document points out the failures on the part of the Catholic hierarchy, including two popes, but relieves Francisco of responsibilities on the case


Cardinal Theodor McCarrick (r) holds the hand of John Paul II (i) in a 2001 photo.Massimo Sambucetti / AP

The scandal was tremendous.

A former nuncio in Washington, Carlo Maria Viganó, accused Pope Francis of covering up the abuses of a cardinal whom he had deprived of all his rights and withdrawn from clerical life only a year earlier.

The former diplomat assured that Francisco knew upon his arrival, in 2013, of the excesses with a teenager of Theodor McCarrick and of the sanctions that weighed on him, but he ignored it.

Viganó requested the resignation of the Pontiff and unleashed a storm that caught the Holy See with a changed foot.

A month later, on October 6, the Pope commissioned an unlimited report of any kind.

Substantially, it had to elucidate what degree of responsibility - or cover-up - had the Catholic hierarchy and the three popes who lived with the cardinal: John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francisco.

The 461-page report is the first great examination of conscience in the history of the Vatican on the subject of abuse and admits that everyone learned of their conduct through more or less reliable channels, but nothing definitive was done until in 2017 Francis received the first complaint of abuse of a minor.

“The Holy See acted on the basis of partial and incomplete information.

Unfortunately, omissions and underestimations were made, decisions were made that later turned out to be wrong ”, reads the text signed by the editorial director of the Holy See, Andrea Tornielli.

Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin in 2019. Parolin details the McCarrick Report on video (VIDEO: VATICAN NEWS)

The report has reviewed all the documents related to the case at the Washington nunciature, at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith or the Congregation of Bishops, and has been supported by 90 interviews.

The investigation has been conducted by the Secretary of State and the conclusion is that despite rumors, direct accusations and McCarrik's admission that he had slept in the same bed with seminarians, the religious managed to continue advancing in his unstoppable career within the Church without anyone doing anything for three pontificates.

The document also indicates that Francisco, despite having heard the same accusations, did not consider that he should do anything more than his predecessors until the first complaint of abuse of minors arrived.

The current pontiff, despite the vagueness with which his possible encounters with the nuncio Viganó are dealt with, where he allegedly warned him of McCarrick's behavior, is the pope who comes off the best.

The guilt of John Paul II

Theodor McCarrick was appointed bishop by Paul VI in 1977. But the rumors and accusations about his conduct began with John Paul II.

In 1986 he was appointed Archbishop of Newark by John Paul II, without any of the accusations being known.

However, when the Polish pontiff wanted to appoint him Archbishop of Washington in 2000 and Cardinal in 2001, he was already aware of these "rumors" and "verifications had been made in the mid-nineties."

The accusations spoke of sexual relations with adults, they also mentioned that he had tried to have a sexual relationship with a priest of the Diocese of Metuchen (who had communicated it) and that he had slept with seminarians in a house on the coast.

All of this was completed with anonymous letters.

On October 28, 1999, according to the report, the Cardinal Archbishop of New York, John O'Connor, collected all these accusations and sent them to the nuncio in Washington, who shortly afterwards John Paul II forwarded them.

They were first taken into consideration and the appointment was stopped to avoid scandals.

However, it was later decided to appoint him Archbishop of Newark.

The reason is that the Polish pope asked four New Jersey bishops for information, three of whom confirmed that he had slept with seminarians, but were unable to confirm whether he had had sexual relations with them.

It was "inaccurate information," according to the report.

In addition, on August 6 of that year, McCarrick wrote to the Pope and assured him that he had not had any sexual relationship with a man or a woman.

But later he admitted that he had slept "recklessly" with seminarians, which must have seemed strange to no one.

Why did John Paul II go ahead with his decision and omit the denunciations?

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The Pope, the report says, had a very good direct relationship with McCarrick and that must have "had an impact on his decision-making process."

“John Paul II read the letter.

He became convinced that the American archbishop was telling the truth, and that the negative voices were, in fact, only voices, unfounded or unproven, ”says Tornielli in the Vatican editorial.

The report also tries to explain this circumstance by ensuring that “the personal experience lived by the then Archbishop Wojtyla in Poland, who for years had witnessed the instrumental use of false accusations by the regime, can help to understand the context of this period. to discredit priests and prelates ”.

Knowledge of Benedict XVI

McCarrick acquired all the power during the pontificate of John Paul II.

And when accusations of harassment and abuse of adults resurfaced in 2005, Benedict XVI "quickly asked the American cardinal, who had just been granted a two-year extension of his mandate, to resign," the Holy See recalls now.

That is, he requested his resignation, but since it was about abuse of adults, he could not or did not want to open a process.

The accusations were on the rise.

The nuncio of the time, Carlo Maria Viganó, transferred the information they had to the Secretary of State, insisting on its seriousness.

The then Cardinal Secretary of State, Tarcisio Bertone, referred the matter directly to Pope Benedict XVI.

But again, since there were no underage victims and McCarrick was already retired, Benedict XVI decided not to open any type of investigation.

In fact, and that is one of the motivations of the report, it did not establish any sanctions either (Viganó later said that Francisco ignored them).

Only the recommendation to give up trips and public events and start a more secluded life.

McCarrick, after a long career of impunity, ignored those "recommendations" and moved on with his life.

“It was more about recommendations, given orally in 2006 and in writing in 2008, without explicitly mentioning the will of the Pope.

They were, therefore, recommendations that, to be put into practice, presupposed the good will of the person concerned.

In fact, it was tolerated that the cardinal remained active and continued to travel and that he carried out, although without any mandate from the Holy See, several missions in different countries, from which useful information is often extracted, ”says the Vatican.

What Francisco knew

The conclusions of the report, despite the precision of many of its investigations, is less clear in this section.

Viganó assured that he had met with the Pope in June and October 2013 (a few months after being appointed) and informed him of the accusations of abuse of a teenager.

But the report says there is no document to support it and the evidence for what it says "is widely disputed."

The Pope's response does not figure in these conclusions.

Instead, according to the same document, the Pontiff did recall a brief conversation with the substitute for the Secretary of State Angelo Becciu (the cardinal who has recently dispossessed of his rights due to alleged corruption scandals) and did not exclude another brief exchange with him. Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin.

Until 2017, no one from his environment provided him with the anonymous complaints that were running, although he did know of their existence.

“He was told that there had been rumors and accusations about immoral behavior with adults before McCarrick's nomination in Washington.

But considering that the accusations had been analyzed and rejected by John Paul II, and well aware that McCarrick had remained active during the pontificate of Benedict XVI, Pope Francis did not see the need to change what his predecessors had established, "says the editorial of the Vatican.

The document ends by recalling the only clear and severe action against McCarrick that occurred in nearly 40 years.

In June 2017, the first complaint of abuse of a minor during the 70s arrived. Francisco asked him to resign from the College of Cardinals.

Source: elparis

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