Pope Francis covered up McCarrick abuse, former US nuncio testifies

Letter confirms Vatican received McCarrick complaint in 2000

• By NICOLE WINFIELD, ASSOCIATED PRESS

VATICAN CITY — Sep 8, 2018, 1:46 AM ET

The Associated Press
FILE - In this March 4, 2015, file photo, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick speaks during a memorial service in South Bend, Ind. A 2006 letter from Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, a top Vatican official confirms that the Holy See received information in 2000 about the sexual misconduct of now-resigned U.S. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, lending credibility to bombshell accusations of cover-up at the highest echelons of the Catholic Church (Robert Franklin/South Bend Tribune via AP, Pool, File)more +


A 2006 letter from a top Vatican official confirms that the Holy See received information in 2000 about the sexual misconduct of now-resigned U.S. cardinal, lending credibility to bombshell accusations of a cover-up at the highest echelons of the Roman Catholic Church.

Catholic News Service, the news agency of the U.S. bishops' conference, published the letter Friday from then-Archbishop Leonardo Sandri to the Rev. Boniface Ramsay, a New York priest who made the initial allegation.

Ramsay informed the Vatican in a November 2000 letter about then Cardinal Theodore McCarrick's misconduct with seminarians from Seton Hall University's Immaculate Conception Seminary. Ramsay, who in 2000 was on the faculty at the seminary, has said he sent the letter at the request of the then-Vatican ambassador because he had heard so many complaints from seminarians that McCarrick would invite them to his beach house and into his bed.

Sandri, now a top-ranked Vatican cardinal who was the No. 3 in the Vatican's secretariat of state at the time, wrote Ramsay on Oct. 11, 2006, seeking his recommendation for a former seminarian for a Vatican job.

In it, he referred to Ramsay's 2000 letter, saying: "I ask with particular reference to the serious matters involving some of the students of the Immaculate Conception Seminary, which in November 2000 you were good enough to bring confidentially to the attention of the then-Apostolic Nuncio in the United States, the late Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo."

Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, at the center of a storm rocking Pope Francis' papacy, cited Ramsay's 2000 letter in his own expose of a cover-up about the McCarrick affair. He named Sandri among a long list of Vatican officials who knew about McCarrick's penchant for seminarians. Vigano also accused Francis of knowing in 2013 of McCarrick's misconduct but of rehabilitating him from sanctions purportedly imposed by Pope Benedict XVI.

Sandri's letter is significant because it corroborates Ramsay's story as well as Vigano's claims. It shows the Vatican knew about allegations against McCarrick in 2000, a year before St. John Paul II made him a cardinal. And it further implicates the Benedict's papacy for failing to take action against McCarrick for years even as more allegations against him arrived.

Vigano says Benedict eventually imposed some form of sanction on McCarrick in 2009 or 2010, nearly a decade after Ramsay's letter arrived. The fact that Sandri cited it so readily suggests it wasn't lost in a pile of unread mail somewhere, but was relevant even for a simple job reference.

Significantly, Sandri appeared more concerned about the sexual purity of the seminarian-candidate than that McCarrick might have sexually abused or harassed him, or abused his power over him.

McCarrick resigned as a cardinal in July after a U.S. church investigation determined an accusation that he groped a teen-age altar boy in the 1970s was credible. Since then several seminarians have come forward to say he routinely bedded them, or harassed them when they refused.

His lawyer has said the accusations are serious and that McCarrick looks forward to invoking his right to due process at the right time.

https://abcnews.go.com/Internationa...an-received-mccarrick-complaint-2000-57681354

 

‘Silence and Prayer’ When the House Is Falling Down
Nikko Lane September 7, 2018 0 Comments

Pope Francis, on Monday, responded to the backlash the Vatican has received, calling on Christ’s Church to fight those causing division with “silence and prayer.”

Silence and prayer. Let’s look into what Pope Francis could gain from silence and prayer.

He asks for silence first. Why? There are certainly times for silence. Before the Blessed Sacrament. As one sits in beautiful silence in the mystery of the Lord Jesus Christ’s offering during the Holy Mass. Silence in solemn remembrance of a loved one passed on, hopefully to our Lord’s peaceful embrace.

But is silence really necessary now, when the Church is in crisis? While the Church inevitably has its members who are clueless as to what has been going on over the last month of Pope Francis’s papacy, the majority of Catholics across the world want answers. Holy Father, are you telling the truth? Holy Father, is Viganò telling the truth? Holy Father, did you know about any of this?

The pope’s response, so far, to the victims of the United States clerical sex abuse scandal has included (I paraphrase):

1. We are all to blame, and we should all work to make things better in our church as laypeople
2. If you have read Carlo Maria Viganò’s letter accusing me and the people I am loyal to, make your mind up for yourself.

Serious accusations have been made, and major implications are at stake. All the while, the successor St. Peter can’t find anything other than be silent and prayerful.

Pope Francis calls for silence. Those who believe him are calling the cause of this sexual abuse scandal, the cover-up, and ensuing crisis an issue of clericalism (the pope’s and his associates most common “smokescreen”). I would argue that the Holy Father has not even once brought up the real issue.

He calls for silence, but why? The Viganò letter implicates Pope Francis in serious crimes against his people. Silence would serve him well. The irony is that if there is division among the Church, it is solely because Pope Francis, guilty or innocent, has not addressed the matter at hand. Every time Francis puts the onus for this scandal on the laypeople of the Church instead of on himself (and on the bishops and archbishops he knowingly appointed despite counsel proposing better candidates), he further victimizes the people who are truly suffering: the children, students, young adults, and seminarians who have been sexually and physically abused amid the McCarricks of the United States clergy. He causes suffering, over and over and over again, institutionally, by his actions, or lack of actions.

Why does he do this? Continually?

That brings us to his next proposal to fight “division”: prayer. John Vianney said, “Prayer is the inner bath of love into which the soul plunges itself.” Pope Francis’s prayer has been public and on camera, on Instagram and Twitter, since the first day of his papacy. Here lies an important observation: Pope Francis outwardly makes a point to be seen by the media. He makes well known the fact that he does not stay in the facilities offered to him as pope. He lives a life of “visual poverty,” in aspirations to be like the great Francis of Assisi, his namesake. But Francis of Assisi held a spiritual and inner poverty. He gave up his worldly goods to be poor, yes, but his spirituality of denial of self in exultation of the Lord is what the beloved saint’s mission was all about. St. Francis would never undermine Catholic doctrine on marriage, sanctity of life, sex, the Holy Eucharist, and most importantly the role of the family in God’s plan as Pope Francis has. Pope Francis has rewritten Church teaching, essentially revamping the teaching on same-sex attraction; allowed people living in adultery to receive communion; and ridiculed Catholic families for being too “rabbit-like” in childrearing.

Why would he suggest prayer? Sure, he could be asking us all to pray for peace and an end to suffering. Or he could be asking us to bury our heads, quiet our mouths, and forget all that Carlo Maria Viganò has accused him and his posse of. Could it be that he wants to distract from himself, McCarrick, and the Wuerls and Tobins while we, the flock, are silent in prayer?

Silence is what the pope asks of us now. Silence and prayer.

I will continue to pray for the Holy See and the Church that St. Peter was given to lead by Jesus Christ Himself. I will pray for the countless victims of clerical abuse and their families, as well, that they find healing in God’s divine love. I will also pray for the wonderful priests who are standing out, appalled by this scandal and by the pope’s lack of response, that they continue to have courage despite their leader’s cowardice. And lastly, I will continue to pray for the lay faithful, who by all accounts are strengthening their faith despite the lack of honesty and leadership from the highest points of our Church hierarchy.

But I will not be silent. Silence only implies the pope’s guilt. I will not be silent when Christ’s Church thirsts for leaders to call heresy and injustice by name. I will continue to speak out. I will speak the Truth. I will speak the Good News. The Word of Everlasting Life has survived many corrupt popes and much adversity before and will continue well beyond your silence, Pope Francis.

https://onepeterfive.com/silence-prayer-house-falling/

 

It's ironic to call for silence in the context of one of the sins that 'cry out to Heaven for vengeance'.

 

I am convinced that even heaven is not silent at the minute as the saints there are pleading for the Justice of God to cleanse the Church and the Earth from this corrupt, hedonistic and impure generation --

 

It fills me with awe to see that the scripture readings lately speak so clearly to us in the current tumultuous times for the Church.

From tomorrow's first reading:

First reading Isaiah 35:4-7

Say to all faint hearts,
‘Courage! Do not be afraid.
Look, your God is coming,
vengeance is coming,
the retribution of God;
he is coming to save you.’
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
the ears of the deaf unsealed,
then the lame shall leap like a deer
and the tongues of the dumb sing for joy;
for water gushes in the desert,
streams in the wasteland,
the scorched earth becomes a lake,
the parched land springs of water.

 

He is coming with our vindication!

 

Let us be sure to join them!

Safe in the Flames of the Sacred Heart!

 

Please pray for Abp Vigano.

The Hunt for Viganò: Vatican Spies Tracking Whistleblower
Pope's canon lawyers drafting sanctions
https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/the-hunt-for-vigano-vatican-spies-tracking-whistleblower
by Church Militant • ChurchMilitant.com • September 7, 2018 316 Comments

By Rev. Michael X., JCL

Vatican officials are on the hunt for Abp. Carlo Maria Viganò.

According to sources within the Vatican, the Secretariat of State of the Holy See — under the direction of Pietro Cardinal Parolin — has communicated an instruction to its internal and external security services to use its "intelligence resources" to locate the physical whereabouts of Abp. Viganò. This request has been communicated not only in order to prevent more unpredictable damage to the image of Pope Francis and the Holy See on the world stage, but also to "prepare the terrain" for the former apostolic nuncio-turned-whistleblower to be prosecuted for alleged multiple crimes against Vatican and Church law.

The urgency with which the location of Abp. Viganò is being sought is all the more palpable since, according to canon 1507 of the Code of Canon Law and other procedural and penal norms of the Holy See and Vatican City State, Abp. Viganò cannot be prosecuted or even punished unless he first be given the opportunity to be officially notified in writing of the specific canonical and Vatican crimes he is alleged to have committed and be given the opportunity to defend himself against them.

Abp. Viganò cannot be prosecuted or even punished unless he first be given the opportunity to be officially notified in writing.Tweet
As first reported by the very well-informed Baron Roberto de Mattei (Corrispondenza Romana, September 5), criminal counts are said to be in the process of being researched and drafted in a libellus accusatorius (canonical criminal complaint) for Viganò having allegedly committed perjury for his having breached pontifical and other forms of state secrecy in violation of, among other norms, the Instruction Secreta continere on the Pontifical Secret issued on February 4, 1974 by John Cardinal Villot, Secretary of State of the Vatican.

The specific Norms of Secreta being researched for applicability and evidence in support of potential prosecution include:

1. Art. I-4 for Abp. Viganò’s alleged divulgation of extrajudicial denunciations received by him during his service of the Holy See regarding crimes against faith and morals and the Sacrament of Penance, and the process and decision pertaining to the handling of these denunciations regarding Theodore Cardinal McCarrick and other clerics referenced by Viganò in his testimony and in the articles of journalists to whom the archbishop is alleged to have disseminated such classified information;

2. Art. I-7 for his alleged dissemination of Vatican secrets gained by reason of office pertaining to appointments of bishops, specifically regarding the appointment of Cdl. Blase Cupich as archbishop of Chicago, Illinois;

3. Art. I-9 for his alleged divulgation of the electronically encrypted order transmitted by the Secretariat of State to Abp. Viganò regarding the appointment of Bp. Robert McElroy to the see of San Diego, California;

4. Art. I-10 for his breaching of "business or matters which are so grave in nature that they are placed under the Pontifical Secret by the Supreme Pontiff or a Cardinal of the relevant Dicastery."

News of the Vatican deploying its vast international resources to track down and prosecute Abp. Viganò are consistent with his assertions made to Aldo Maria Valli on their final encounter: that Viganò had "purchased a plane ticket," that he was "traveling abroad," that he "could not tell [Valli] where," that Valli "should not try to find him," that "his old cellular number will no longer be functioning," and that they "saluted each other one last time."

Viganò, in saying goodbye to Valli, appears to have known exactly what the worst elements of the Vatican and its agents are capable of. Let us hope he has taken every necessary precaution from falling into the hands of those who would wish him ill.

 

Franciscan Friars of the Renewal: Investigate ‘each and every allegation’ in Viganò testimony
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/f...al-investigate-each-and-every-allegation-in-v


Nebraska bishop urges ‘thorough’ probe: Viganò testimony ‘must be taken seriously’
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/n...-probe-vigano-testimony-must-be-taken-serious


Cincinnati archbishop: Vatican must ‘open the McCarrick file’
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/cincinnati-archbishop-vatican-must-open-the-mccarrick-file


US bishop calls on Pope Francis to address Viganò allegations ‘directly’
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/u...rancis-to-address-vigano-allegations-directly

 

I don't know if this was posted previously or not but it is worth a read.

https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/...down-as-the-clarifying-moment-of-francis-papa

Why Viganó’s testimony will go down as the ‘clarifying moment’ of Francis’ papacy

SIGN THE PLEDGE: Support and pray for Archbishop Viganò. Sign the petition here.

September 4, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – The month of August opened with a bang—and closed with a nuclear detonation. On August 2nd the world learned of Pope Francis’s disdain for the witness of Scripture and the ordinary and universal magisterium of the Church on the death penalty as he took it upon himself to “develop” into oblivion over 3,000 years of Jewish and Christian teaching. On August 25th the world learned of Pope Francis’s disdain for justice, victims of abuse, and the eradication of the homosexual elite. In the space of a single month, Catholics beheld the prodigy of a pope who neither guarded orthodoxy of doctrine nor protected the faithful from the predation of wolves.

We knew it was bad before, but something has changed. Comparisons are not easy, but I suppose it would be like thinking your country is ruled by Mussolini and discovering it is actually ruled by Stalin. Before Viganò, people could persuade themselves to believe with faint and remote hope that Bergoglio might “come around” and do something about the sexual abuse crisis exemplified in McCarrick, that he might “wake up” to the gravity of the situation and respond as befits the Vicar of Christ. Now, it appears that he himself is the enabler, the patron of criminals, the head of a religious Mafia that has occupied the vineyard of the Church.

There are, it is true, some people who reacted with “I knew it all along! From the very day he stepped out on the balcony of St. Peter’s…”—and it could be that they were gifted with a preternatural intuition. I was uncomfortable from the very first Angelus address in which he praised the theology of Walter Kasper. There are also those, who, like olympic ostriches practicing the sport of extreme head-burying, continue to defend the pope at all costs (including the cost of their intellectual honesty).

But for the vast majority, it has been a moment of awakening: the scales have fallen from our eyes, the scales that prevented us from seeing clearly the magnitude of the problem and therefore assessing the magnitude of the solution required. As some like to say, it is a “clarifying moment.”

As such, it is also a moment of decision: decisions about who we are and what we believe as Catholics, how we will relate to wolves in shepherd’s clothing, where we will turn for truth and salvation, and why we will remain faithful in spite of the infidelity of those who were graced by God with the office of teaching, governing, and sanctifying.

We can see more clearly than ever that we do not and must not lean on men, no matter how lofty their titles, but on Our Lord Jesus Christ, the head and rock of the Church. We see that our religion, in its holy worship, its perennial doctrines, and its life-giving code of morals, is not a man-made edifice subject to constant manipulation but a God-given revelation to which we must submit ourselves and remain unbendingly true.

It may be that the best effect of August 2018 is that it prompts sincere Catholics—those who still wish, above all, and in spite of all, to follow Christ the King in His one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church—to ask painful questions not just about the past five years, but about the past fifty years. What has made this pontificate and its attendant chaos possible? Is it a stray chastisement permitted for the purification of our sins? Or is it the fruition of an entire trend, the distillation of decades of ambiguous doctrine, catechetical waffling, worldly accommodationism, strategic secularization? Are we not beholding the fully consistent manifestation of “the spirit of Vatican II” that not only wilfully outstripped the texts of the Council but had already permeated the conciliar assembly in the well-documented machinations of the progressive European bishops who dominated the proceedings and whose spiritual descendants are today running the show?

Today’s “clarifying moment” is a divine judgment on the evils that were set in motion decades ago, evils from which we can no longer hide if we wish to be rid of them for good, or at least cleanse our lives of their poisonous influence. All of the evils—evils of liturgical deformation, evils of immoral behavior, evils of heterodox teaching—share one thing in common: each and every one is based on a rejection of Catholic tradition.

In times of distress, the only safe path is to follow the tried-and-true path of tradition, that which was handed down and accepted by all Catholics until the postconciliar rupture, and which has never ceased to be followed and transmitted by that portion of the faithful who, over the past half-century, held fast to their inheritance. Concretely, this means traditional liturgy and sacraments, traditional catechisms, traditional examinations of conscience, traditional devotions and spirituality. One can never go wrong with such things in and of themselves, whereas one may frequently go wrong with their modern substitutes.

We do not want ersatz Catholicism but real Catholicism. August 2018 has dramatically proclaimed that the former is totally bankrupt. It is up to us to draw the conclusion and to act accordingly.

 

News through the secular press,

Vatican promises 'necessary clarifications' to Pope Francis cover-up claims

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/religi...rifications-pope-francis-cover-claims-n908241

Pope Francis Is Finally Ready to Address Claims He Covered Up Sexual Misconduct, Vatican Says


http://time.com/5391781/pope-francis-vatican-sexual-misconduct/

 

If Archbishop Vignano was lying it would be the most simple thing in the world to simply say, 'He is lying!' Why the silence?

If he is lying why the big fuss about trying to rack the guy down?

It reminds me so much of the wiki leaks thing. I mean if the wiki leaks episode has been a fantasy why so much fuss? it's the same with Vignano. Why the silence and fuss if the whole thing were a fairy tale? It's just not logical.

 

The Vatican is working on an answer to the sex abuse scandals: https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2018-09/pope-francis-council-cardinals-c9-press-office.html

The statement doesn't say whether they will address the Vigano revelations. They might confine it to the sex abuse of minors where, thanks to Pope Benedict, there have been improvements.

Looking at who comprises the C9 group of Cardinals, I hope we can expect more than a "this is all behind us; nothing to see; time to move on" statement. There should be an independent investigation conducted by people not implicated in Bishop Vigano's statement. Also, considering that Pope Francis has appointed a notorious homosexualist to take responsibility for the Vatican's secret archives, what are the chances of transparency regarding the lavender mafia in the episcopacy?

 

As McCormick admitted he and Francis were friends before he was pope and McCarrick helped him become pope and stated he would change the papacy in 5 years. It's very unlikely Francis didn't know of his behaviour and he certainly did change things for the worse in those 5 years. The lavender mafia is not going away quickly or easily but as we all know will be cleansed eventually.

 

Simple. PF said there is no "lavender mafia." We are all haters. PF is a liar.

 

I was sent the following from my son, Dc. Patrick, a word of warning to deacons as well!

Some powerful words from Pope St Gregory the Great that I was reading on his feast day yesterday. Let's pray for all priests.

"I believe, brethren, that God receives no offense so great as he does from priests who, placed by him in his church in order to correct others, set them instead the example of their own wickedness: when he sees sin committed by those who should curb sin. What is yet more grievous, and sometimes happens, is that priests, who should help others from what they have themselves, wrest from others all that they can. (...) But, if we neglect the sheep, does God therefore abandon them? By no means. He himself leads them to pasture, as he promised through his prophet Ezechiel; for he instructs all those whom he has predestined to eternal life and hastens their steps by the spur of suffering and contrition of heart. By our ministry the faithful receive holy baptism; they are blessed by our prayers; by the imposition of our hands the Holy Ghost comes down upon them. So they reach the heavenly kingdom, while we, by our negligence, slide backward. The just man, cleansed by the absolution of the priest, enters heaven: while the priest, by his evil life, speeds to the pains of hell. To what can I liken bad priests? To the water of baptism which, blotting out the sins of those baptised, flows on into the sewer. Let us fear this disaster, brethren; let us act always as befits the dignity of the priesthood. Let us think daily of reparation for our sins lest our lives, by which God frees others, remain shackled to our guilt. Let us remember well what we are, what is our business, the charge we have received. We must learn to balance daily the account we shall have to settle with our judge. And we must so minister to ourselves as not to forget the welfare of others, so that none who comes in contact with us be left unseasoned by the salt of our conversation."

Safe Under Mary's Mantle!

 

Very timely
You have a great family btw

 

Council of Cardinals Expresses ‘Full Solidarity’ with Pope Francis on Sexual Abuse Scandal

Six of the nine cardinals who are members of the International Council of Cardinals have expressed “full solidarity” with Pope Francis and his handling of the church’s sexual abuse scandal.
Only six cardinals participated in the meeting of the council, known as the “C9,” on Monday, reported the Catholic Herald.

In a statement released on the first day of a three-day meeting, the six cardinals “expressed full solidarity with Pope Francis in the face of what has happened in the last few weeks, aware that in the current debate the Holy See is formulating possible and necessary clarifications.”

The council has convened as the Vatican is reportedly preparing a response to a letter released by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the Vatican’s former ambassador to the United States, which links both the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse crisis, as well as ensuing coverups by its bishops, to an extensive “homosexual network” within the church.

The six cardinals present for the meeting Monday were Cardinals Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state; Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Tegucigalpa, Honduras; Sean P. O’Malley of Boston; Oswald Gracias of Mumbai, India; Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising, Germany; and Giuseppe Bertello, president of the commission governing Vatican City State.

Absent from the C9 meeting were Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz Ossa, retired archbishop of Santiago, Chile, who is facing scrutiny for his handling of sexual abuse allegations; Cardinal George Pell of Australia, who is on trial in his country for sex abuse charges; and Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya of Kinshasa, Congo.

Pope Francis created the C9 following his election in 2013 to advise him on the reform of the Roman Curia and on governance of the church.

The C9 meeting convenes as about 44,000 Catholic women have signed a letter to Pope Francis, charging him with providing an “inadequate” response to Viganò’s letter.

In his letter, Viganò charged that, as the papal nuncio to the United States, he personally informed the pope of former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s sexual abuse of priests, seminarians, and minors on June 23, 2013 – three months after the College of Cardinals elected Francis pope. The pope, nevertheless, “continued to cover for [McCarrick],” Viganò charged.

The former nuncio wrote that, despite being aware of McCarrick’s abusive history, Pope Francis “did not take into account the sanctions that Pope Benedict had imposed on [McCarrick] and made him his trusted counselor.”

Viganò has called upon Pope Francis to resign his office.

Catholic News Service (CNS) reported last week its receipt of a letter confirming that Vatican officials knew of allegations against McCarrick in 2000.

A top official from the Vatican Secretariat of State acknowledged allegations made by Father Boniface Ramsey, pastor of St. Joseph’s Church Yorkville in New York City, against McCarrick, the former archbishop of Newark, New Jersey.

Ramsey had been on the faculty of Immaculate Conception Seminary in South Orange, New Jersey, from 1986 to 1996 and had sent a letter in 2000 to then-Vatican ambassador to the United States, the late Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo, informing him of complaints he heard from seminarians who were students at the seminary.

Ramsey shared with CNS a letter dated October 11, 2006, from then-Archbishop Leonardo Sandri – former Vatican substitute for general affairs – who wrote to request information about a priest of the Archdiocese of Newark, who studied at Immaculate Conception Seminary and was being considered for a Vatican post.

CNS reported:

Then-Archbishop Sandri wrote to Father Ramsey, “I ask with particular reference to the serious matters involving some of the students of the Immaculate Conception Seminary, which in November 2000 you were good enough to bring confidentially to the attention of the then Apostolic Nuncio in the United States, the late Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo.”

Ramsey told CNS that in his letter to the former Vatican ambassador, he “complained about McCarrick’s relationships with seminarians and the whole business with sleeping with seminarians and all of that; the whole business that everyone knows about.”

The report continued:

Father Ramsey said he assumed the reason the letter from then-Archbishop Sandri, who is now a cardinal and prefect of the Congregation for Eastern Churches, only mentioned “serious matters involving” seminarians and not Archbishop McCarrick’s behavior was because accusations against the former cardinal were “too sensitive.”

“My letter November 22, 2000, was about McCarrick and it wasn’t accusing seminarians of anything; it was accusing McCarrick.”

While Father Ramsey has said he never received a formal response to the letter he sent in 2000, he told CNS he was certain the letter had been received because of the note he got from then-Archbishop Sandri in 2006 acknowledging the allegations he had raised in 2000.

The 2006 letter from Sandri to Ramsey “not only confirms past remarks made by Father Ramsey, but also elements of a document written by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, who served as nuncio to the United States from 2011 to 2016,” stated CNS.

Cardinal Joseph Tobin, the current archbishop of Newark, New Jersey, has told priests under his leadership he has no knowledge of a “gay subculture” in his archdiocese and has instructed them not to speak to media about sexual misconduct.

Tobin’s letter to the priests of his archdiocese was written in the wake of a Catholic News Agency (CNA) story revealing new allegations of sexual abuse of seminarians and priests by McCarrick and by others in ministry within the archdiocese. The story featured the reports of six priests of the Newark archdiocese, who spoke to CNA under the condition of anonymity, regarding incidents that occurred while the archdiocese was under the leadership of both McCarrick and, later, Archbishop John J. Myers.

https://www.breitbart.com/national-...solidarity-pope-francis-sexual-abuse-scandal/

 

With Pope Francis, the answer probably depended on who was asking the question. In June 2013, he said there was a gay lobby. That he gave a different answer later to a different audience is hardly surprising.

A lot of the Pope's most ardent defenders speak and act as though anyone who doesn't see him as the successor of Jesus rather than Peter's successor is a hater who hated Francis from the beginning. And their list of "Francis haters" continues to grow. Some go as far as adding EWTN and National Catholic Register to the list of "Francis haters". In their eyes, of course, the Francis hating Catholic news outlets are also accused of spreading "Fake News". OnePeterFive tends to be near the top of their hater list. Sandro Magister has had some articles published on OnePeterFive. I don't know whether he still writes for them because I'm not a regular reader. Compare these two articles written by Sandro Magister:

This was published in his own newspaper on 19th July 2013, ten days prior to the Pope's infamous "Who am I to judge" response to a question about Msgr. Ricca whom he had promoted to the Vatican Bank a month earlier. According to the BBC report on the appointment: "Although Msgr Ricca was nominated by Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican announcement made clear that Pope Francis personally backed the appointment". Note how Magister is convinced that Pope Francis can't have known about Ricca's track record of homosexual activities:
http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1350561bdc4.html?eng=y&refresh_ce

After four years of the Francis Pontificate, Magister, like many others, had stopped giving the Pope a pass. The article was published in October 2017 on the OnePeterFive website (Magister's newspaper had closed in 2016). This article gives some quotes from Pope Francis on the question of the judgement and destination of people's souls after death. Irrespective of whether Pope Francis is innocent of the Vigano accusations, what Magister has reported should trouble any Catholic who believes what the Church has always taught, and saying so doesn't make me or Magister a "Francis hater".
https://onepeterfive.com/worlds-end-update-last-things-according-francis/

 

Cardinal Wuerl May Step Down


https://spiritdailyblog.com/news/crucial-meeting-in-rome