A savage conflict, largely fought underground, is convulsing the Catholic church in the US after a former Vatican ambassador to Washington demanded that Pope Francis resign – a gambit that has not been played in church politics since around 1417.
The ostensible cause is the charge made by the Catholic Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, that Pope Francis rehabilitated and used as his adviser on American appointments Cardinal Theodore (“Uncle Ted”) McCarrick, despite being warned that he had a reputation for abusing trainee priests. There are problems with this story. No one now disputes the sexual abuse. When it came to public knowledge earlier this year, the pope stripped Bishop McCarrick of his post as a cardinal. But Archbishop Viganò claims that Pope Benedict had previously condemned Bishop McCarrick to the lesser punishment of “a life of prayer and penance”. Ignoring this punishment is Francis’s supposed crime and complicity. The trouble is that the punishment was entirely secret. Bishop McCarrick carried on as usual. There is even footage of Archbishop Viganò, as ambassador to Washington, hailing him in public as “a man whom everybody loves”.
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