Former Vatican official: Cupich’s Chicago promotion ‘orchestrated’ by disgraced colleague McCarrick
Chicago’s Roman Catholic leader, Cardinal Blase Cupich, was dragged this weekend into the roiling clerical sex abuse scandal because of allegations that a now-disgraced Churchman accused of sexual misconduct, Theodore McCarrick, helped advance Cupich’s career.
A just-released letter from a former high-level Vatican official, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, not only is alleging that Pope Francis knew years ago there had been misconduct allegations against McCarrick, but also that McCarrick was instrumental in getting Cupich and other U.S. Church leaders appointed by the pope.
McCarrick, a onetime cardinal, allegedly preyed sexually on adult seminarians and minors. The pope removed him from public ministry in recent months as the sex misconduct allegations — which Church officials are treating as “credible” — were made public.
“The appointments of Blase Cupich to Chicago and Joseph W. Tobin to Newark were orchestrated by McCarrick” and two other bishops, Vigano wrote. “Their names were not among those presented” formally to the Vatican embassy in the U.S. and onto the pope through regular channels.
Vigano, who was the Vatican’s top U.S. diplomat from 2011 until 2016, goes on to rip into Cupich, alleging he has a “pro-gay ideology.”
Cupich has never been accused of any misconduct, sexual or otherwise.
“Regarding Cupich, one cannot fail to note his ostentatious arrogance, and the insolence with which he denies the evidence that is now obvious to all: that 80% of the abuses found were committed against young adults by homosexuals who were in a relationship of authority over their victims,” Vigano wrote, according to a copy of his letter posted on the National Catholic Register news site.
A statement released Sunday afternoon by Cupich questioned the accuracy of some of the details in Vigano’s letter and noted that he’s only had limited communications with Vigano, all of them cordial. The allegations of McCarrick being involved in his appointment are “astonishing,” Cupich’s statement says.
Neither Vigano nor McCarrick could immediately be reached for comment.
Some Church insiders have long believed that McCarrick went to bat for Cupich and that Cupich’s name was not included on the official shortlist of archbishop candidates submitted to the pope with input from then-retiring Chicago Cardinal Francis George.
Vigano’s letter seems to confirm those suspicions.
In an Aug. 7 interview with the Sun-Times in which he was asked about McCarrick, Cupich said only the pope knows the particulars of his appointment. He also said he doesn’t buy that there are “kingmakers” in that process, and that many people likely gave their opinions to the pope on appointments.
Pope Francis took office in 2013, and he appointed Cupich the following year, before George’s death.
In the Sun-Times interview, Cupich also lambasted the secretive legal settlements that were made in past years by the Church in New Jersey to resolve sexual misconduct complaints against McCarrick. Cupich spoke to the importance of transparency in the Church, and he also said there’s an advisory group that his predecessor created that helps Church leaders here address allegations of sexual misconduct by priests against adults.
Cupich suggested this advisory group could be something of a model in other parts of the country.
But while espousing greater transparency, Cupich’s aides have since refused to delve into detail about that group and the types of cases that were handled, and the outcomes.
In 2016, Cupich presented an award to McCarrick at an event sponsored by the Catholic Extension charity, at which Cupich praised McCarrick for his “own unique way of making a mark on the Church,” according to a conservative religious news site.
The Church has been in deep turmoil since McCarrick’s allegations became public earlier this year. McCarrick is alleged not only of trying to bed adult male seminarians — Catholic priests are supposed to be celibate, and homosexual intercourse is considered a sin — but also of alleged sexual abuse of minors.
The scandal grew amid questions about why the McCarrick allegations hadn’t been acted on sooner, and whether McCarrick’s brother bishops had covered for him.
Now Vigano is accusing the pope of letting McCarrick continue in ministry for years despite knowing about at least some of the accusations.
Vigano — who is considered a more conservative Catholic voice, unlike the pope who is considered liberal or, to some, even not “authentic” in some of his teachings — is calling on the pope to resign.