Today, Oct. 6, 2018, the Pope established that the Holy See publish a following statement regarding the confusion and debates tied to the Vigano letter and what was known about ex-cardinal McCarrick’s sexual misconduct with seminarians.
The Vatican has just begun this week the Synod on Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment, Oct. 3-28, in the Vatican, bringing together bishops from all over the world.
Pope Francis accepted McCarrick’s resignation as cardinal on Saturday, July 28, 2018. The statement noted: «Pope Francis accepted his resignation from the cardinalate and has ordered his suspension from the exercise of any public ministry, together with the obligation to remain in a house yet to be indicated to him, for a life of prayer and penance until the accusations made against him are examined in a regular canonical trial.»
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accused former Cardinal McCarrick of having abused him in the 1970s. The Holy Father ordered a
thorough preliminary investigation into this, which was carried out by the Archdiocese of New York, at the conclusion of which the relative documentation was forwarded to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In the meantime, because grave indications emerged during the course of the investigation, the Holy Father accepted the resignation of Archbishop McCarrick from the College of Cardinals, prohibiting him by order from exercising public ministry, and obliging him to lead a life of prayer and penance.
objectively.
may emerge that choices were taken that would not be consonant with a contemporary approach to
such issues. However, as Pope Francis has said: “We will follow the path of truth wherever it may
lead” (Philadelphia, 27 September 2015). Both abuse and its cover-up can no longer be tolerated and a different treatment for Bishops who have committed or covered up abuse, in fact represents a form of clericalism that is no longer acceptable.
the grave scourge of abuse within and beyond the Church, and to prevent such crimes from being
committed in the future to the harm of the most innocent and most vulnerable in society. As
previously made known, the Holy Father has convened a meeting of the Presidents of the Bishops’
Conferences from around the world for next February, while the words of his recent Letter to the
People of God still resonate: “The only way that we have to respond to this evil that has darkened so
many lives is to experience it as a task regarding all of us as the People of God. This awareness of
being part of a people and a shared history will enable us to acknowledge our past sins and mistakes with a penitential openness that can allow us to be renewed from within” (20 August 2018).
