IMAGE: CNS photo/Gregory A. Shemitz
By Junno Arocho Esteves
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, the
former nuncio to the United States who accused Pope Francis and church
officials of failing to act on accusations of sexual abuse, urged a top Vatican
official to release documents that would prove his allegations.
In a four-page letter released by LifeSiteNews Sept. 27,
Archbishop Vigano called on Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the
Congregation for Bishops, to release information about alleged private
sanctions imposed by now-retired Pope Benedict XVI on then-Cardinal Theodore E.
McCarrick.
“Your Eminence, before I left for Washington, you were
the one who told me of Pope Benedict’s sanctions on McCarrick. You have at your
complete disposal key documents incriminating McCarrick and many in the curia
for their cover-ups. Your Eminence, I urge you to bear witness to the
truth,” the former nuncio wrote.
He also called on leaders of the U.S. bishops’ conference,
who had a private meeting with Pope Francis Sept. 13, to say if the pope
refused “to carry out a Vatican investigation into McCarrick’s crimes and
those responsible for covering them up.”
Archbishop Vigano, who has been in hiding after publishing Aug.
25 his “testimony” against Pope Francis, also defended his decision
to write the document and to reveal in it alleged facts that were “covered
by the pontifical secret that I had promised to observe.”
Pontifical secrets, he said, are meant “to protect the
church from her enemies, not to cover up and become complicit in crimes
committed by some of her members.”
“I was a witness, not by my choice, of shocking facts
and, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church states, the seal of secrecy is not
binding when very grave harm can be avoided only by divulging the truth,”
Archbishop Vigano wrote. “Only the seal of confession could have justified
my silence.”
In the
new letter, Archbishop Vigano continued his accusations about homosexual clergy
having great influence in the Vatican and with Pope Francis. And he expressed
disappointment at how, in his view, Cardinal Ouellet had given up his defense
of Catholic orthodoxy.
“At
the beginning of Pope Francis’ pontificate, he had maintained his dignity, as
he had shown with courage when he was Archbishop of Quebec,” Archbishop
Vigano wrote. “Later, however, when his work as prefect of the
Congregation for Bishops was being undermined because recommendations for
episcopal appointments were being passed directly to Pope Francis by two
homosexual ‘friends’ of his dicastery, bypassing the cardinal, he gave
up.”
As of early Sept. 28 neither Pope Francis nor current
Vatican officials had commented on the accusations in Archbishop Vigano’s
original document; instead, Pope Francis told journalists Aug. 26 to “read
it yourselves carefully and make your own judgment.”
“I will not say a single word on this. I believe the
memo speaks for itself and you are capable enough as journalists to draw your
own conclusions,” the pope had told reporters traveling back to Rome with
him from Dublin.
In the weeks that followed, preaching on the day’s Mass
readings, the pope delivered several homilies in which he noted Jesus’ humility
and silence when unjustly insulted and accused.
“In difficult moments, the moments in which the devil
is unleashed — where the shepherd is accused especially by the Great Accuser
through many powerful people — the shepherd suffers, offers his life and
prays,” the pope said in his homily Sept. 18 during morning Mass in the
Domus Sanctae Marthae.
Archbishop Vigano said the homilies contradicted Pope
Francis’ initial response to remain silent, and he accused the pope of putting
“in place a subtle slander against me” during the celebration of the
Eucharist “where he runs no risk of being challenged by journalists.”
“When he did speak to journalists, he asked them to
exercise their professional maturity and draw their own conclusions. But how
can journalists discover and know the truth if those directly involved with a
matter refuse to answer any questions or to release any documents?”
Archbishop Vigano asked.
Members of Pope Francis’ international Council of Cardinals had
confirmed in a Sept. 10 statement that “the Holy See is formulating
possible and necessary clarifications” in response to the former nuncio’s allegations
against the pope.
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