McCarrick scandal prompts search of Vatican archives

Pope Francis, right, is surrounded by young people taking selfies at the end of a meeting in the Vatican on Saturday.

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has authorized 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 Saturday in its first response to explosive allegations of a cover-up that is roiling the papacy.

The Vatican said it was aware that such an investigation might 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 allegations that Francis knew of sexualmisconduct allegations against then-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 allegations, lodged by a retired Vatican ambassador.

Depending on the scope of the investigation, Francis’ actions might be found to have been inconsistent with what he now considers unacceptable behavior by a bishop. However, the study announced Saturday refers only to documentation, a potentially limiting constraint, given that the McCarrick scandal apparently involves private dicussions that might not have paper trails in Vatican archives.

“Both abuse and its coverup 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 had pressured them to sleep with him. The 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 following 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 U.S. 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 young teen and other men have said they were harassed by McCarrick as adult seminarians and young priests.