HARRISBURG (PA)
Penn Live
August 28, 2018
By James Downie
Catholic priest abused five sisters in one Harrisburg family: Grand jury report
It seemed the news couldn’t get more troubling for American Catholics, already inundated with new sexual abuse scandals ensnaring (in different ways) former Washington Archbishop Theodore McCarrick, his successor Donald Wuerl and hundreds of Pennsylvania priests.
Then, on Saturday, another hammer blow landed.
The Washington Post reports that “A former Vatican ambassador to the United States has alleged in an 11-page letter that Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis – among other top Catholic Church officials – had been aware of sexual misconduct allegations against former D.C. archbishop Cardinal Theodore McCarrick years before he resigned this summer.”
It’s the latest sign that the church likely needs nothing less than a complete overhaul of its hierarchy.
Let’s be clear: The letter’s author, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, is no fan of Francis.
Vigano “was recalled [by the Vatican] from his D.C. post in 2016 amid allegations that he’d become embroiled in the conservative American fight against same-sex marriage,” and he has criticized Francis’s papacy.
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