Bishops’ cover-up worse than the abuse, says Pope

Vatican and the Pope share responsibility for perpetuating abuse. Pressure on the Pope grew last year after Cardinal Carlo Maria Vigano, a former papal nuncio to the US,accused him of ignoring abuse allegedly committed by Theodore McCarrick, the retired archbishop of Washington.

The Pope removed Archbishop McCarrick from the college of cardinals in July after he was accused of molesting a minor in the 1970s. Former seminarians have since said that the archbishop tried to share a bed with them.

Allegations that the Pope ignored abuse in the church have been seized on by conservative Catholics in the US already resentful of his mercy-before-dogma approach. His relatively relaxed approach to homosexuality has been a particular issue for conservatives, who believe that gay priests are responsible for abusing young worshippers.

In this letter, the Pope appeared to take aim at his critics in the US. ‘‘Let us try to break the vicious circle of recrimination, undercutting and discrediting, by avoiding gossip and slander in the pursuit of a path of prayerful and contrite acceptance of our limitations and sins, and the promotion of dialogue, discussion and discernment,’’ he wrote. It was painful, he added, to watch ‘‘an episcopate lacking in unity and concentrated more on pointing fingers than on seeking paths of reconciliation’’. – The Times