Just in time to 'rescue' Jorge Bergoglio from having his face ground in the dust after the humiliating defeat of his policy of 'immigrants first and always, and the hell with Italian sovereignty and nationalism' which his bishops in Italy actively campaigned for in a bid to defeat Matteo Salvini's Lega candidates for the European Parliament, a couple of new bombshells which may momentarily distract from the voter slapdown of Bergoglio's immigrationism, but do aggravate earlier self-generated Bergoglio scandals.
The first has to do with former papal pet McCarrick - who became Bergogio's sacrificial lamb when he defrocked him in the full glare of the world's media spotlights. It was, of course, Bergoglio's way of trying to beat back the ignominy of having privileged McCarrick for years to make him one of his closest advisers and personal envoy for all the significant diplomatic initiatives of his pontificate.
Not only has McCarrick's former longtime secretary made public a correspondence file showing that McCarrick was indeed disciplined by Benedict XVI back in 2008, but also how the wily and then very powerful cardinal managed to violate the restrictions, following which the next pope 'rehabilitated' him completely by endowing him with the extraordinary and plenipotentiary powers he wielded in this pontificate until he was exposed to the public in June 2018 as a serial sex predator of boys and seminarians since the 1960s. Then, Bergoglio had no choice but to appear to renounce and denounce one of his favorite pets in the zoo of doctrinal and moral deviants that make up his satanic menagerie.
To make things look even worse for Bergoglio on the McCarrick front, he decides to give an interview to a Mexican TV outlet in which he declares - apparently with a straight face - that "About McCarrick I knew nothing, obviously, nothing, nothing. I said it many times, I knew nothing, no idea" because "I don’t remember if he [Mons. Vigano] told me about this. If it’s true or not. No idea! But you know that about McCarrick, I knew nothing. If not, I wouldn’t have remained quiet, right?”
It's a brazen tissue of lies, if only because this is the first time that he makes such a denial, having in the past 270 days, by Marco Tosatti's running count, staunchly refused to answer Vigano's charge sheet. Why couldn't he have said all the above when he as first asked about it, instead of the smug and self-righteous song and dance he made challenging journalists to find out the truth themselves!
Spadaro and Tornielli should provide Bergoglio with a constantly updated 'cheat sheet' as an aide memoire citing what he has already said about controversial issues, so that he does not embarrass himself - and all of us who have to witness the spectacle of a habitually lying pope - by contradicting what he has said before.
Writing for The Tablet, Ines San Martin reports on the highlights of the Bergoglio interview which contains at least a couple of other egregious examples of Bergoglian bloopers and whoppers having to do with his capricious and deceitful ways of appearing to 'deal' with episcopal and cardinalatial involvement in sex abuse scandals. [The way he dismisses Cardinal Pell as having been 'condemned' already is bloodcurdlingly callous and lacking one iota of mercy and charity!]
But it is his rationalization of how he has dealt so far with Mons. Zanchetta that takes the prize for most incoherent and least credible cover story that Bergoglio's devious mind has yet devised. Perhaps like all liars, he has not heard or completely ignores Sir Walter Scott's lament back in the 16th century - "Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we set out to deceive!"
In new interview, pope claims
he 'knew nothing' about McCarrick
[Lies, lies, on videotape]
By Inés San Martín
May 28, 2018
NEW YORK – In his first direct comments about the case of former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Pope Francis said that
“about McCarrick I knew nothing, obviously, nothing, nothing.”
“I said it many times, I knew nothing, no idea,” Francis said in an interview with Mexican journalist Valentina Alazraki.
Speaking about the allegation made by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, who claimed last August that he had told Pope Francis about Vatican-imposed restrictions against the former Archbishop of Washington, the Holy Father said that
“I don’t remember if he told me about this. If it’s true or not. No idea! But you know that about McCarrick, I knew nothing. If not, I wouldn’t have remained quiet, right?” [At least, he had the conscience not to say flatly, "No, he never told me what he claims he did!", resorting instead to the tried-and-tested legal ploy of saying "I don't remember..." But the ploy doesn't work and can't work because how can a pope not remember being told about such shocking misconduct by one of his favorite cardinals and agents???]
McCarrick was removed from the College of Cardinals last year, after he was alleged to have sexually abused both minors and seminarians. Earlier this year, the Vatican announced Pope Francis had removed him from the clerical state, after he was found guilty.
In a wide-ranging interview, he also spoke about the United States and Mexico.
Speaking about the trip he took to Mexico in 2016, where he said Mass at the U.S. border, Pope Francis said that he doesn’t understand this “new culture of defending territories by building a wall.”
“We know of one, the Berlin one, that brought us many headaches and a lot of suffering …
But it seems that what man does is what animals don’t. Right? Man is the only animal that falls twice in the same hole. Right? We go back to the same. Right? [Man] lifts up walls as if this was the defense. Right? When the defense is dialogue, growth, welcoming and education, integration, or the healthy limit of saying ‘we can’t [welcome] anyone else.’” [Omigod, can he stop already with that self-righteous and oh-so-annoying rhetorical 'Right?' as a substitute for common sense argument!!!]
Still talking about migration, the pontiff turned to the example of what’s going on in the Spanish region of Ceuta and Melilla, which is on the coast of North Africa and is separated from Morocco by razor-wire fences. He said that it’s cruel to separate children from their parents, and that it goes against natural law.
Asked what he’d say if instead of Alasraki he was facing American President Donald Trump with no cameras on, Pope Francis said that he would say the same thing because he’s said so in public before.
“I also said in public that who builds walls ends up prisoner of the walls they build,” he said, adding that the territory can be defended, but perhaps through a bridge and not a wall. “But I’m talking about political bridges, cultural bridges. We cannot build bridges at every border, right? It’s impossible.” [Aaaargh, I want to 'kill' him already!]
The case of the disgraced Argentine
bishop ‘parked’ at the Vatican
Forgive me for resorting to one of Frank Walker's tawdry headlines, but in this case, it is as tawdry as the story it refers to.
Alazraki also asked Pope Francis about Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta, the former Bishop of Oran, in northern Argentina, who was transferred by the Holy Father to the Vatican, and who’s currently suspended from his position at the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See (APSA).
The journalist said many don’t understand why Pope Francis brought him to Rome to begin with, when there were already allegations against the Bishop.
The pontiff confirmed that Bishop Zanchetta is currently being judged by the Vatican.
“Before I asked for his resignation, there was an accusation, and I immediately made him come over with the person who accused him and explain it,” Pope Francis said. The accusation involved the Bishop’s phone, which contained homosexual pornography, and explicit sexual images of the Bishop in his bedroom.
“The defense is that he had his phone hacked, and he made a good defense,” Pope Francis said, adding that it created enough doubt, so Francis told Bishop Zanchetta to go back.
[Assuming his phone was hacked, how would the hacker(s) have explicit sexual images of the bishop in his bedroom? Jorge Bergoglio, call your mind back home fron Alpha Centauri!]
“Evidently he had, some say, despotic treatment of others – he was bossy,” and a “not completely clear dealing of finances,” though as the pontiff noted, this hasn’t been proven.
“But certainly, the clergy didn’t feel well treated by him,” Pope Francis said. “They complained until they made an allegation as a body to the Nunciature,” meaning the Vatican’s embassy in Argentina.
Pope Francis says that he then called
the Nuncio, who told him that the allegation of mistreatment was “serious,” and he understood it to be a case of “abuse of power.” So, he sent Bishop Zanchetta to Spain to receive psychological treatment and asked him to resign from the Diocese of Oran.
The treatment, Pope Francis said, found that Bishop Zanchetta was within the normal range, but they advised he received further treatment once a month in Madrid, so Pope Francis took him to Rome. In his own words, “parked him” in Italy. [Psychological 'treatment', huh? Wasn't Bergoglio among those who have been denouncing the 1970s-1980s view of homosexuality as a 'treatable disease' - which he now invokes for Zanchetta!]
When it comes to the fact that Bishop Zanchetta is accused of misusing funds,
Pope Francis said that at present there is no evidence of that, only that he wasn’t “ordered” when it came to money. Despite not being good at keeping track, the pontiff said, the Bishop had a “good vision.”
Once he had a replacement for the Bishop, the pontiff said, he opened the investigation of the allegations. He received the result of the investigation 15 days ago, “and I decided that it’s necessary to have a trial. So, I gave it to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.”
Regarding the “impatient ones” who accuse him of having done nothing, Francis said that the pope doesn’t have to “go publishing everyday what he’s doing, but I was never not on this case from the first moment.”
As Pope Francis noted, he asked for the investigation late last year, but between the holidays and the slowness of Argentina’s summer- which takes place from December to March – things took longer than they should have.
“There are cases that are long, that wait more [like this one], and I explain why, because I didn’t have the elements,” he said. But now that he does, Bishop Zanchetta is on trial. “Meaning, I didn’t stop.”
Francis also said that he must always follow the principle of “presumption of innocence,” something even the most “anti-clerical judges” follow. However, he said, there are cases where the guilt “is evident,” as was the case of McCarrick, which is the reason why he removed him from the college of cardinals even before the trial had ended.
The Council of Cardinals
Speaking about the Council of Cardinals that advises the pope on the reform of the Roman curia, Pope Francis said that
it was “obvious” that Cardinal Javier Errazuriz, Emeritus of Santiago, Chile, couldn’t continue to be a part of the team. Pope Francis doesn’t give a reason, though he does lump him in with Australian Cardinal Goerge Pell, who’s “imprisoned and condemned, well, he appealed, but he has been condemned.”
Bishop Errazuriz is one of nine Chilean bishops who’ve been subpoenaed by the Prosecutors’ Office on charges that he covered up cases of clerical sexual abuse.
As Alazraki noted, there are also allegations against the coordinator of the group, Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, of Honduras. Pope Francis said that
“the poor [man] will get things from every side, but there’s nothing proven, no … He’s honest and I made sure to find things out. In this case, it’s calumnies.” [This is exactly what he said for the better part of three years about the accusations made by Chileans who objected to is appointment of Juan Barros as a diocesan bishop! Until he was forced to eat crow.]
“No one has been able to prove anything to me,” the pontiff said. “Maybe he made some mistakes, he’s done things wrong, but not at the level that they want to hang on him. It is important, so I defend him on this.”
[Really? So why does he not release the report on Maradiaga and the hanky-panky in Honduras subitted to him almost two years ago by the Argentine bishop he sent to investigate the allegations against the cardinal and his now-dismissed #2 man about moral and financial shenanigans in Tegucigalpa? Is Maradiaga shaping up to be Bergoglio's next McCarrick?.. and BTW, I am surprised Alazraki did not bring up that report to challenge Bergoglio's reply!]
Violence Against Women
Pope Francis said that he wouldn’t know how to give a sociological explanation for what’s happening with violence against women, but “I would dare to say that women today are still in a secondary place.”
In the collective imagination to this day, he said, when a woman reaches a position of power, it’s noted as a thing: “Oh, see, a woman made it! She got a Nobel prize. Great coincidence.”
Going from being “in second place” to being treated as slaves, Pope Francis said, it’s not a long road. It happens in Italy, he said, in the streets of Rome, where women are forced into prostitution. “They are enslaved women. Enslaved. They’re for that … And well, going from there to killing them …” [Oh, please! It's all among the terrible consequences of the Fall. Isn't prostitution widely considered as 'the oldest profession'? Why doesn't Cardinal Krajewski devote some of his time to breaking up the prostitution rings in Rome and trying to rescue the prostitutes from sin - those who are prostitutes by choice, as well as those who are driven by necessity into a life of sin as slaves of organized crime? Wouldn't that be a more worthy enterprise than taking busloads of homeless to the beach on Sundays to have a day of'fun'?]
The number of femicides is growing throughout Latin America, with one woman being killed every 40 hours in Argentina by a partner or former partner.
“The world without women doesn’t function,” he said. “Not because she’s the one who brings children [into the world], let’s leave procreation to the side … A house without women doesn’t function. There’s a word that is about to fall out of the dictionary, because everyone is afraid of it: Tenderness. It’s the patrimony of the woman. Now, from there to femicide, slavery, there’s one step. What is the hatred, I wouldn’t be able to explain it.”
Alazraki came to international attention when she was asked to address the Vatican summit on clerical sexual abuse which took place in Rome Feb. 21-24. She told the presidents of the world’s bishops’ conferences that journalists will be the bishops’ “worst enemies” if they continue to cover up abuse.
The subhead to the following story reads: "While confirming some elements of the allegations made last August by former Vatican nuncio Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, Monsignor Figueiredo’s report does not answer key questions about what Pope Francis knew about McCarrick’s actions." [Isn't that a stupid remark? Does anyone really think that McCarrick and Wuerl between them would knowingly make any written references to the reigning pope's decision to ignore the sanctions imposed by his predecessor on someone he liteally cherrypicked to be a major powerplayer in his behalf???]
Correspondence confirms Benedict XVI
placed restrictions on McCarrick in 2008
by the Staff
May 28, 2019
A priest who was ordained by then-archbishop Theodore McCarrick and who worked with the defrocked prelate for decades has published a report detailing correspondence that confirms that Pope Benedict XVI had placed restrictions on McCarrick’s ministry in 2008.
The correspondence quoted in the report also indicates that these restrictions were known to then-Archbishop Donald Wuerl, McCarrick’s successor as head of the Washington, DC archdiocese; it further demonstrates that McCarrick’s disregard of the restrictions began almost immediately upon their being imposed.
Msgr. Anthony J. Figueiredo, a priest of the Archdiocese of Newark, was secretary to Archbishop McCarrick for a year in the 1990s, and worked in Rome for decades in various Vatican offices, including the Curia and the Pontifical North American College. He stated that he published his report on Tuesday, the 25th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood by McCarrick, to “help the Church as she further endeavors to create a culture of transparency.”
Reporters from Crux and CBS News have seen the correspondence quoted in Figueiredo’s report and confirmed its authenticity.
Crux has compiled the Figueiredo documents here:
cruxnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/The-Figueiredo-Report-May-28-...
Figueiredo’s report contains an admission by McCarrick that he showed “an unfortunate lack of judgment” in sharing his bed with priests and/or seminarians at his summer house, but denies ever having or seeking sexual relations “with anyone, man, woman, or child.”
Confirming that restrictions were imposed on his ministry, McCarrick states in an August 2008 letter to Archbishop Pietro Sambi that, “having studied the letter of Cardinal Re [then prefect of the Congregation for Bishops] and having shared it with my Archbishop [Donald Wuerl],” McCarrick would seek a new residence with the help of Wuerl and would “make no commitments to accept any public appearances or talks without the express permission of the Apostolic Nuncio or the Holy See itself.”
In a letter to Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, then the Vatican’s Secretary of State, McCarrick again acknowledges the restrictions placed on him and expresses his willingness to be “less public a figure.”
While confirming some elements of the allegations made last August by former Vatican nuncio Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano —specifically that McCarrick was placed under some sanctions during the pontificate of Benedict XVI and that Cardinal Wuerl was aware of them —
Figueiredo’s report does not substantiate Vigano’s accusations that Pope Francis knew about sexual abuse allegations against McCarrick; that Francis knew about Benedict XVI’s restrictions on McCarrick’s ministry; or that Francis “freed” McCarrick from his predecessor’s restrictions. [Further stupidity! I doubt that McCarrick's or Wuerl's candor - or of anywone in similar circumstances - would extend to incriminating themseles and their lord and master by acknowledging such things in writing.]
Figueiredo’s report does demonstrate that Benedict’s restrictions were disregarded by McCarrick almost immediately. Figueiredo writes: “Since the restrictions imposed were not made public and despite McCarrick’s promises, he continued his public ministry, including taking a highly visible public role, interacting with high-ranking Vatican officials (including Cardinals Sodano and Bertone and heads of Dicasteries), public officials in the United States and around the globe.”
[As much as I love Benedict XVI, I do think it was a major error on his part not to have made his disciplinary action against Mccarrick known to the public. Failure to do that was tantamount to covering up for McCarrick, shielding him from public exposure, and was, in effect, a betrayal of his almost single-handed battle since 2002 to extirpate if possible the scourge of clerical sex abuses from the Church.]
McCarrick’s globe-trotting continued after the election of Pope Francis, Figueiredo writes: “Without any sense of the lifting of the restrictions, McCarrick continues his foreign travel after the election of Pope Francis on March 13, 2013, as evidenced by a number of communications from him regarding his extensive activity around the globe.”
These included communications with the Vatican’s Secretariat of State and with Pope Francis himself, in which McCarrick provides updates on his whereabouts and activities in China, the Balkans, the Middle East, and the Philippines, among other places.
The same day Figueiredo’s report was published, a lengthy interview with Pope Francis by a Mexican television station was published, in which the Holy Father stated, “I knew nothing about McCarrick, of course, nothing. I have said it several times, I knew nothing.”
In concluded his report, Msgr. Figueiredo states that he has other documents relating to McCarrick, and that these “will form the basis of further possible reports if this contributes to the good of the ongoing investigation and efforts to address the abuse crisis, love of Holy Mother Church, and ultimately the salvation of souls.”
LifeSite's Diane Montagna not only reports on Mons.Viganò's reaction to the reigning pope's latest untruth, but reports on parts of the interview not covered by San Martin in her account:
EXCLUSIVE: Abp Viganò says Pope is lying
in latest denial about McCarrick
by Diane Montagna
ROME, May 28, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — For what appears to be the first time, Pope Francis has openly denied that he knew anything of former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s immoral activities, directly contradicting Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò’s account of their conversation on the subject.
“I didn’t know anything ... nothing, nothing,” Pope Francis said in a new interview on Vatican News.
In response, the former apostolic nuncio to the United States has directly accused Pope Francis of lying.
In comments to LifeSite following the release of the interview, Archbishop Viganò said:
“What the Pope said about not knowing anything is a lie. [...] He pretends not to remember what I told him about McCarrick, and he pretends that it wasn’t him who asked me about McCarrick in the first place.”
Both interviews coincide with the release of a leaked correspondence between Pope Francis, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, confirming that restrictions were placed on McCarrick by the Vatican in 2008, and that the former cardinal (who has now been laicized over charges of sexual abuse) travelled extensively during the Francis pontificate, playing a key diplomatic role in establishing the controversial Vatican accord with Communist China.
In the May 28 interview with Mexican journalist Valentina Alazraki, Pope Francis sought to explain why he has never openly denied Archbishop Vigano’s original testimony, while issuing a denial seemingly for the first time.
Readers will recall that news of the former US nuncio’s testimony broke last August 25, while Pope Francis was attending the World Meeting Families in Dublin. One day later, during an inflight press conference on his return to Rome, the Pope sidestepped questions about the explosive allegations that he knew of former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s abuse.
“Read the [Viganò] statement carefully yourselves and make your own judgment. I am not going to say a word about this,” the Pope told journalists aboard the papal plane (see video here). You all have sufficient journalistic ability to draw conclusions.
It is an act of trust. When a little time goes by, and you have drawn conclusions, perhaps I will speak about it, but I would like your professional maturity to do this work. It will do you all good, really.”
[What shameless drivel! It was drivel then, and it is contradictory drivel now, when he claims he cannot remember what Vigano told him. If I were a journalist on that plane, would I have had the good sense to courteously protest and say, "But Your Holiness, what is there to carefully read about this one point: His statement is clear and direct that he told you about McCarrick when you brought him up yourself. Did he or didn't he?"
Maybe that might have forced him to come up then and there with the 'I don't remember...' ploy, which is used only by those who don't want to actually lie and/or who are constrained to be evasive on the grounds of avoiding self incrimination. Or maybe he mught have bitten the bullet, and lied through his teeth and the bullet, "No, we never ever spoke about McCarrick". Which he could have easily said right off the bat, without any hemming or hawing, if Vigano had been merely spinning a tale. Instead, Bergoglio indulges in self-righteous evasive folderol.]
In today’s interview with Alazraki, the journalist and long-time friend of John Paul II candidly tells Pope Francis: “That silence has been very burdensome, because for the press and for many people, when one is silent it is like a husband and wife, isn’t it? You catch your husband and he doesn’t answer you. And you say, ‘There’s something rotten here.’”
“So why the silence?” Alazraki pointedly asks Pope Francis. “The time has come to answer that question we asked you on the plane.”
“Yes,” Pope Francis responds.
“Those who studied Roman law say that silence is a way of speaking. The Viganò case: I saw it, I hadn’t read the whole letter. I saw a little and I already knew what it was, and I made a choice: I trust the honesty of journalists and I said to them, “Look, here you have everything. Study it and draw your conclusions.” And that’s what you did, because you did the work, that was great, and I was very careful to say things that weren’t there, but then, three or four months later, a judge in Milan said them when he was convicted.
“You’re talking about his family,” Alazraki asks.
“Of course,” the Pope responds. “I kept quiet, why should I make it worse. Let the journalists find out. And you found it, you found that whole world. It was a silence of trust towards you … And the result was good, it was better than if I had started to explain, to defend myself.” [What did anyone find out exactly about McCarrick and Vigano's allegations, when the Vatican has not provided access to any of the confirmatory documents he refers to? Bergoglio is delberately muddling the issue by misrepresenting Vigano's involvement in a family civil suit as a conviction - it was not - as if somehow that amounts to a refutation of any allegations made by Vigano.]
Pope Francis is suggesting that Archbishop Viganò has been exposed as unreliable because of a legal conflict with his brother that was settled in a Milan court.
In comments to LifeSite, Archbishop Viganò dismissed the Pope’s attempt to cast doubt on his reliability over a dispute with his brother concerning the management of their inheritance — a question he pointed out had “no relevance to the allegations regarding Cardinal McCarrick.”
“What Pope Francis said regarding the Milan ruling and my family has nothing to do with anything, because it has been completely clarified. It was only a division of property between brothers. I accepted it to make peace. Neither me nor my brother appealed the ruling, so the story ended there. And it has nothing to do with McCarrick. It is one of the many stories that they raised to destroy my credibility.”
Archbishop Vigano’s account of these proceedings has been extensively verified by LifeSite News.
In Oct. 2018, the Vatican announced that a “thorough study” of all relevant documents housed in Vatican offices would be conducted. It’s unclear however why Pope Francis would require an archival investigation to say whether he knew about Cardinal McCarrick’s misdeeds.
In his comments to LifeSite, Archbishop Viganò said: “On the return flight from Dublin, the Pope told journalists: ‘I trust in your professionalism.’ He promised to provide documents and he doesn’t provide the documents. Tell me how journalists are supposed to know the truth if you don’t provide the documents.”
“How much time has passed since the Vatican promised an investigation? It’s all a contradiction. He completely contradicts himself,” he said.
“The Pope pretends not to remember what I told him about McCarrick,” Archbishop Vigano added. “He pretends that it wasn’t him who asked me about McCarrick in the first place. And he pretends not to remember what I told him.”
The Pope even claimed during the interview that there have been allegations that Archbishop Vigano was bribed to make damaging claims about him [it is obscure to whom the Holy Father is referring], insinuating in the context a comparison of the former US nuncio to Judas Iscariot.
In the May 28 interview, Alazraki presses Pope Francis further on whether or not he knew about former cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s misdeeds.
“I didn’t know anything about McCarrick, obviously, nothing, nothing,” he says. “I’ve said that several times, that I didn’t know, I had no idea.”
It’s unclear as to what Pope Francis is referring to when he says that he denied knowledge of McCarrick’s immoral activities on several occasions as his refusal to comment one way or another has been a particularly notable element of the scandal.
Pope Francis continues: “When [Archbishop Viganò] says that he spoke to me that day [on June 23, 2013], that he came … I don’t remember if he told me about this, whether it’s true or not, no idea! But you know that I didn’t know anything about McCarrick; otherwise I wouldn’t have kept quiet, right?”
Archbishop Viganò observed of this remark: “He tries to be clever, claiming that he doesn’t remember what I told him, when he was the one who asked me about McCarrick.”
The Pope says in the interview that there was a twofold reason for his silence. “First,” he tells Alazraki, “because the evidence was there, you judge. It was really an act of trust.”
“Secondly,” he adds, “because of the [example of Jesus], that in moments of viciousness it is better not to speak, because it makes it worse. Everything is going to go against you. The Lord taught use that path and I follow it.”
News of Pope Francis’s comments about Archbishop Viganò coincide coincided with today’s release of a correspondence between Theodore McCarrick, Pope Francis and Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin.
The correspondence, obtained by former aide to Theodore McCarrick, American Monsignor Anthony Figueiredo, confirms that restrictions were placed on Theodore McCarrick by the Vatican in 2008, and that the former cardinal, who was laicized over charges of sexual abuse, travelled extensively the Francis pontificate, playing a key diplomatic role in establishing a Vatican accord with China.
Asked today about the correspondence, Archbishop Viganò told LifeSite “the letters sing.”
“Msgr. Figueiredo was McCarrick’s personal secretary when he came to Rome,” the former US nuncio said. “He has released these letters from McCarrick to Parolin and the Pope in which he reports on his trips to China, to Iran and other places. Therefore, they were all well informed about this.”
Archbishop Viganò also noted that the correspondence shows that the Vatican was informed about the fact that McCarrick was sharing his bed with seminarians. “McCarrick admitted it,” he said.
“To defend himself with the Pope, McCarrick said he never had sexual relations with anyone, but that he slept in the same bed with seminarians and priests,” the former US nuncio said.
[McCarrick obviously cribbed a leaf from Michael Jackson's excuse book! Or this is the standard answer of sex predators who are in denial about their perversion.]]
Archbishop Vigano pointed out:
It’s the same thing he said before the ruling from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The sentence to reduce him to the lay state him was based on abuse against adults, minors and also abuse in Confession. Either the sentence from the Holy Office [Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith] is irrelevant, or what McCarrick said, that he never had relations with anyone, is a lie — just like what the Pope said about not knowing anything is a lie, just like what he said about not remembering what I told him is a lie, when he was the one who asked me.
The former nuncio to the United States also noted that the letters confirm Cardinal Parolin’s involvement in the McCarrick affair, adding that it’s time for him to be investigated.
“As I wrote in my first testimony, in May 2014 — when the article came out in the Washington Times referring to McCarrick’s trip to Central Africa — I wrote to Cardinal Parolin, asking him: Are the restrictions that were placed on McCarrick still valid or not?”
“Parolin never responded to me,” the archbishop said, adding that the Vatican Secretary of State should also be investigated. “He never responded to my letter, because is a total yes-man, as we see with the China deal.”
[I am starting to develop an active odium towards Parolin who is now touted by even someone like Sandro Magister as the ranking papabile to succeed Bergoglio. I find him a blood-curdling political chameleon who is as slimy and slipery as an eel, and occasionally pipes up with something seemingly at odds with Bergoglio's position I suppose to show he is his own.. er.. eel.]
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 31/05/2019 03:32]