Top Vatican cardinal decries cover-up accusations against pope
ROME — In a combative letter, a highly placed cardinal on Sunday mounted the Vatican’s first direct response to accusations that Pope Francis knew about and covered up the alleged sexual misconduct of a U.S. prelate, describing those claims as a “political fabrication devoid of a real foundation.”
The letter, written by Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, came six weeks after a former Vatican ambassador to the United States wrote a bombshell letter of his own, charging that much of the Vatican hierarchy, including Pope Francis, had for years protected recently resigned Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.
Cardinal Ouellet’s letter is significant because it ends a period of silence among the key Vatican officials with the standing to rebut or back up the claims of that former ambassador, Carlo Maria Viganò. That silence has tested the patience of many Catholics, who remain divided over Mr. Vigano’s credibility but say his claims have further wounded a church that is contending with multiple abuse-related crises.
Cardinal Ouellet, the head of the Vatican’s powerful bishops office, said it was “unbelievable and unlikely from every point of view” to accuse Pope Francis of “having covered up with full knowledge of this alleged sexual predator.” Cardinal Ouellet, who portrayed Mr. Viganò as bitter and disillusioned with his career within the Holy See, said he was in “open and scandalous rebellion,” and Cardinal Ouellet accused him of exploiting the broader clergy sex-abuse scandal in the U.S. as a way to land “an undeserved and unheard of blow” on the pope.
But pushing back against Mr. Viganò, Cardinal Ouellet said the Vatican had attempted years ago to place some restrictions on Cardinal McCarrick — an acknowledgment that matches somewhat, but not completely, with Mr. Viganò’s version of events.
As Mr. Viganò describes it, the Vatican had ignored reports about Cardinal McCarrick for years — until “2009 or 2010,” when Pope Benedict XVI placed sanctions on the cardinal, forbidding him to travel, appear publicly or hold Mass. Mr. Viganò says he then told Pope Francis in 2013, not long after he became pope, that Cardinal McCarrick was a “serial predator.”
Pope Francis reportedly ignored those sanctions and made Cardinal McCarrick a trusted adviser. Mr. Viganò wrote that he learned of Pope Benedict’s sanctions against Cardinal McCarrick in part from Cardinal Ouellet.
Cardinal McCarrick is 88, and in 2006, when he reached the customary retirement age of 75, Pope Benedict accepted his resignation as the archbishop of Washington. He was succeeded by Archbishop Donald Wuerl, the longtime bishop of the Dioceses of Pittsburgh. Cardinal Wuerl has denied knowing about his predecessor’s sexual misconduct before the recent sequence of events that led to Cardinal McCarrick’s downfall this summer.