November 2020: After two years, publication of the Vatican internal investigation into former Cardinal McCarricks sexual abuse, has revealed a cover up by bishops, arch bishops and 3 popes.
By the 1990s, there was growing evidence pointing to McCarrick’s misconduct: A handful of seminarians confided in a New Jersey bishop, describing how McCarrick would devise ways to share a bed with them involving explicit sexual activity. Anonymous letters were also sent to various prelates, including Cardinal John O’Connor of New York, warning of McCarricks “proclivity for young boys.” O’Connor, in several sympathetic notes, alerted McCarrick, apologizing for sending the information saying: “This stuff drives me crazy but I would want you to do the same for me.” The Vatican’s then-ambassador to the United States then “destroyed” his copies of the letter.
Pope John Paul ll not only knew about and overlooked sexual misconduct claims against McCarrick but promoted him. Although informed in writing that McCarrick shared a bed with young seminarians over whom he had authority, the pope chose to believe Mc Carricks written denials in a letter in which he stated that he had never had “sexual relations with any person”. McCarrick was then appointed arch bishop of Washington in 2001.
A formidable church fundraiser, McCarrick gave hundreds of thousands of dollars in church money to powerful Catholic clerics over nearly two decades, including those in the Vatican charged with assessing the misconduct claims against him. From 2001, McCarrick sent checks totalling more than $600,000 to clerics in Rome and elsewhere, including Vatican bureaucrats, papal advisers and two popes, according to church ledgers and former church officials. Several of the more than 100 recipients were directly involved in assessing misconduct claims against McCarrick. Meanwhile speculation continues, regarding McCarricks involvement in the $200 million Papal Foundation, which apparently served as a secret slush fund for corrupt Vatican enterprises, to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. Predictably, the report states there was no evidence “that McCarrick’s customary gift-giving and donations impacted significant decisions made by the Holy See regarding McCarrick during any period.”
Archbishop Viganò, former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, warned Pope Benedict in 2006, concerning McCarricks activities. The Vatican vacillated and no penalties were levied, instead “the decision was made to appeal to McCarrick’s conscience and ecclesial spirit,” requesting that he keep a low profile and reduce travel in the church’s name. Benedict requested that McCarrick “spontaneously” withdraw as archbishop of Washington after he reached the standard retirement age of 75. McCarrick ignored the request amassing power and prestige and travelling the world. In 2008 Vigano again wrote to Benedict and included a letter from Richard Sipe, a former monk and practising psychotherapist, specialising in clerical sexual abuse. Sipe confirmed that McCarrick’s activities “had been widely known for several decades.” In 2009 or 2010 according to Viganò, Pope Benedict XVI then placed severe restrictions on McCarrick’s movements and public ministry, not allowing him to travel beyond the grounds of the seminary where he was living and not permitting him to say Mass in public. Referred to as “one of a number of senior churchmen who were more or less put out to pasture during the eight-year pontificate of Benedict XVI,” he found himself put “back in the mix” with the election of Pope Francis in 2013.
In 2018 Archbishop Vigano stated publicly that Francis subsequently removed Benedict’s sanctions and made McCarrick “his trusted counsellor,” even though Francis “knew from at least June 23, 2013 that McCarrick was a serial predator. He knew that he was a corrupt man, he covered for him to the bitter end.” In May 2014, McCarrick travelled with Pope Francis to the Holy Land, to Armenia to discuss Syria with Eastern Orthodox clerics, the Philippines to visit typhoon victims, China for discussions on religious freedom, Iran for talks on nuclear proliferation and also served as a Vatican intermediary for the U.S.-Cuba talks. The state-approved Chinese newspaper reported that McCarrick travelled to China in Feb. 2016 quoting McCarrick as saying that the similarities between Pope Francis and Xi Jinping could be “a special gift for the world.”
McCarrick was only officially removed from public ministry by Pope Francis in 2018, when the position of both became untenable due to credible allegations of abuse, dating back to the 1970s and acknowledgement by several diocese, of previous out of court settlements. These required claimants to agree to gag orders. McCarrick, was defrocked by Francis after Vatican officials found him guilty of two charges: “Soliciting sex during confession and committing “sins” with minors and adults… “with the aggravating factor of the abuse of power.” Pope Francis ordered him to adopt a life of prayer and penance, he was provided with accommodation at a Capuchin Friary in Kansas with fees paid by the Catholic church. Following the failure of his Appeal, he relocated in 2020 to an undisclosed “secluded address away from public attention…to be closer to his family”.
THE LATEST INVESTIGATION INTO CLERICAL SEXUAL ABUSE HAS THE POTENTIAL TO DAMAGE THE PUBLIC IMAGE OF THREE POPES, JOHN PAUL ll, NAMED A SAINT IN 2014, BENEDICT WHOSE DECISION MAKING IS CALLED INTO QUESTION AND THE MOTIVATION OF FRANCIS IN THE REINSTATEMENT AND ELEVATION OF McCARRICK.
Predictably the report limits the culpability of Pope Francis, who instigated the investigation in 2018. The report states that Francis knew of rumours surrounding sexual conduct between McCarrick and adults but received no documentation of sexual impropriety until 2017 and was not aware of accusations of sexual abuse against minors until 2018. This is at odds with archbishop Viagno’s testament that Pope Francis removed sanctions and made McCarrick “his trusted counsellor,” even though Francis “knew from at least June 23, 2013 that McCarrick was a serial predator.”
Whichever may be true, responsibility for rectifying past errors surely rests with the appointed head of any organisation, government or in particular a church which claims its popes to be divinely appointed.
POST SCRIPT: A new lawsuit has been filed this year, alleging that McCerrick sexually molested an underage boy at a beach house on the New Jersey shore, that other priests groomed the young man and then introduced him to the bishop for sexual encounters at the property owned by the diocese of Metuchen. Jeff Anderson, the attorney for the plaintiff identified in court papers only as John Doe 14, said there were other boys who were abused, referring to “McCarrick’s sordid beach house child sex ring.”
For further details see:
Covering up the Cover Up – Cardinal Depravity
Bishps Aid Priests Instead of Victims