Pope OKs study of Vatican archives in sex abuse case

VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis has authorised a “thorough study” of Vatican archives into how a prominent American cardinal advanced through church ranks despite allegations that he slept with seminarians and young priests, the Vatican said in its first response to explosive allegations of a cover-up that is roiling the papacy.

The Vatican said on Saturday that it was aware that such an investigation may produce evidence that mistakes were made, when evaluated with today’s standards. But it said Francis would “follow the path of truth, wherever it may lead”.

The statement did not address specific claims that Francis himself knew of sexual misconduct allegations against now ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick in 2013 and rehabilitated him anyway from sanctions imposed by Pope Benedict XVI.

Francis has said he would not say a word about those claims, lodged by a retired Vatican ambassador.

Depending on the scope of the investigation, Francis’ actions may be found to have been inconsistent with what he now considers unacceptable behaviour by a bishop.

But the study announced om Saturday refers only to documenta- tion, a potentially limiting constraint, given that the McCarrick scandal apparently involves private, verbal communications that might not have paper trails in Vatican archives.

“Both abuse and its cover-up can no longer be tolerated, and a different treatment for bishops who have committed or covered-up abuse in fact represents a form of clericalism that is no longer acceptable,” the statement said.

The Vatican knew as early as 2000 that seminarians complained that McCarrick pressured them to sleep with him.

Rev Boniface Ramsay, a professor at a New Jersey seminary, wrote a letter to the Vatican in November 2000 relaying the seminarians’ concerns after McCarrick was named archbishop of Washington.

St John Paul II still went ahead with the nomination and made McCarrick a cardinal the next year.

McCarrick resigned as Washington archbishop in 2006 after he reached the retirement age of 75.

Francis accepted McCarrick’s resignation as a cardinal in July after a US church investigation determined that an allegation that he groped a teenage altar boy in the 1970s was credible. Since then, another man has come forward saying McCarrick molested him when he was a teenager and other men have said they were harassed by him as adult seminarians and young priests.

The scandal has created a crisis in confidence in the US hierarchy, since it was apparently an open secret that McCarrick would invite seminarians to his New Jersey beach house, and into his bed.

Faced with a loss of credibility, US bishops said they wanted a fullscale Vatican investigation into how McCarrick rose through the ranks, despite his misconduct.