- A report on the Vatican’s knowledge of a dignitary accused of molesting minors and adults was made at the request of Francis
- The report revealed that in 1999 the apostolic nunciature in Washington was warned that McCarrick’s planned appointment as metropolitan of the US capital could cause a “serious scandal.”
- In 2000, the candidate for metropolitan Washington wrote a letter to Bishop Dziwisz reassuring himself of his innocence and of “never having had sexual relations with any person”
- More information can be found on the Onet.pl home page
State Secretariat Holy See at Francis’ request, he compiled and published on Tuesday a report on the Vatican’s knowledge of the accused of molesting minors and adults, as well as the decision-making processes that had been taken in his case.
The report revealed that in 1999 the apostolic nunciature in Washington was warned by the then Archbishop of New York, Cardinal John Joseph O’Connor, that the planned appointment of McCarrick as metropolitan of the US capital could cause a “serious scandal” because of the then circulating voices about the hierarchy’s behavior towards young men.
The Vatican considered the decision taken by John Paul II, who asked the nuncio in the USA to check these allegations, as an important step. The investigation did not provide specific evidence. Nevertheless – the report revealed – the pope decided to withdraw McCarrick’s candidacy.
Then it was reported that the radical change took place after on August 6, 2000, McCarrick wrote a letter to Bishop Dziwiszin which he assured himself that he was innocent and that he “never had sexual relations with any person.”
Pope John Paul II he read the letter and was convinced that the hierarch was telling the truth and that the charges were unfounded. It was then, according to the Vatican report, that the Polish Pope recommended that McCarrick’s name be returned to the list of candidates for metropolitan of the most important archdiocese in the USA, for which he was later elected. This is one of the main threads of the report.
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said: “We are publishing a report in pain about the wounds the case has caused to the victims, their families, the Church in the United States, the universal Church.”
What is in the McCarrick report?
As reported by The Washington Post, the report seems to limit the blame of Pope Francis, who is presented as acting against McCarrick when there is clear evidence of the former cardinal committing acts. The report states that before 2017, Francis had heard “only of the allegations and rumors related to immoral treatment of adults” and had the impression that these allegations had been “considered and rejected by John Paul II”.
One woman, asking for anonymity to protect her children’s identities, said in an interview that she sent an unsigned letter to every US cardinal in the 1980s, clearly describing McCarrick’s sexual abuse of his teenage sons.
A summary of a long 450-page text suggests that John Paul II “may have been blinded by his earlier friendship with McCarrick in the 1970s” and “by his experience in communist Poland, where authorities sometimes made false accusations against bishops in an attempt to harm Church reputation, “the National Catholic Reporter reads.
As the summary of the report shows, although there is no direct evidence, it seems likely that John Paul II’s previous experience in Poland of using false accusations against bishops to humiliate the position of the Church contributed to believing McCarrick’s arguments.
McCarrick Report. The role of popes
In the 14-page introduction to the report, we learn how Francis and his three immediate predecessors, Benedict XVI, John Paul II, and Paul VI, dealt with McCarrick.
The only pope of the four who is beyond all suspicion is Paul VI. The document states that in 1977, when Paul VI appointed McCarrick an Auxiliary Bishop of New York, “no one reported having witnessed or heard of McCarrick’s involvement in any inappropriate behavior.”
Most of this section of the report focuses on John Paul II’s decision to appoint McCarrick as Archbishop of Washington.
As the report recalls, at the time of this appointment, there were three categories of allegations against McCarrick:
- from a priest in Metuchen who claimed to have watched McCarrick have sex with a priest in June 1987.
- anonymous letters sent to the Vatican embassy and “various” American cardinals who “accused McCarrick of pedophilia”
- information that showed that McCarrick shared beds with clerics
Guilty not only in the Vatican
The report also charges four Catholic bishops in New Jersey, where McCarrick served as Archbishop of Newark before he was appointed Washington. They were asked as early as June 2000 about the charges against McCarrick. The names of the bishops were not disclosed in the document.
“It is now known that three out of four American bishops have provided the Holy See with inaccurate and incomplete information about McCarrick’s sexual behavior with young people,” reads the report’s synopsis. “This inaccurate information probably influenced the conclusions of John Paul II’s advisers and, consequently, John Paul II himself” – added.
McCarrick Report. Who is the hierarch?
Theodore McCarrick was for years one of the most influential hierarchs of the Catholic Church in the United States. In 2000-2006 he was the metropolitan archbishop of Washington.
In 2018, after the first investigations initiated into the charges against him, he resigned as a cardinal.
His canonical trial initiated in the Vatican ended with the issuance of a decree by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in February 2019, in which he was found guilty of acts against minors and adults. Pope Francis considered this decree final, as a result he then expelled the former cardinal from the priesthood.
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