August 27, 2018  Life Site News.   Pope Emeritus Benedict has confirmed the claim that he acted during his tenure to discipline new ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarricik in response to accusations of sexual abuse, according to source who have spoken to the National Catholic  Register.

If true, the Pope Emeritus’ confirmation that he knew about McCarrick and sought to punish him lends strong weight to the claim that Pope Francis knew about McCarricks but permitted him to act freely as an emissary of the Holy See and as a ‘kingmaker’ for bishop and curial appointments in the Francis papacy.

Although Benedict reportedly cannot remember the exact nature of the punishment he imposed on McCarrick, he recalls having instructed Cardinal Bertone, his then secreteay of State to impose “measures” against the cardinal in response to the allegations against him of homosexual predation against seminaries and adolescents.

The Register has independently confirmed that the allegations against McCarrick were certainly known to Benedict, and the Pope Emeritus remembers instructing Cardinal Bertone to impose measures but cannot recall their exact nature,” the publication states in a widely overlooked passage in its original article on the scandal published on Saturday.  The Register does not reveal its sources for this information”The affirmation comes in the wake of allegations made on Saturday by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, for Apostolic Nuncio in the United States, that Pope Benedict had imposed severe severe penalties on Cardinal McCarrick years before Francis became Pope, forbidding him to say Mass in public, to participate in public meetings, to give lectures, and to travel, “dedicating himself to a life of prayer and penance.”

In his written testimony on the affair, simultaneously published by LifeSite News.com and the National Catholic Register on Saturday, Vigano says that he personally knows that Pope Francis was aware of the accusations against McCarrick, because he mentioned them to the Pontiff himself on two different occasions in 2013, shortly after his election, when Francis appeared to be probing him to see if he was an ally or an enemy of McCarrick.”

Asked, “What is Cardinal McCarrick like?” Vigano writes, “I answered him with complete frankness and, if you want, with great naivete:  “Holy Father, I don’t know if you know Cardinal McCarrick, but if you ask the congregation for Bishops, there is a dossier this thick about him. He corrupted generations of seminarians and priests and Pope Benedict ordered him to withdraw to a life of prayer and penance”

The Pope did not make the slightest comment about these very grave words of mine and did not show any expression of surprise on his face, as if he had already known the matter for some time and he immediately changed the subject.” continues Vigano.  “But then, what was the Pope’s purpose in asking me that question:  “What is Cardinal McCarrick like?  He clearly wanted to find out if I was an ally of Mcarrick or not.

Vigano states that despite Francis’ clear knowledge of McCarricks’s record of sexual abuse, McCarrick was allowed to freely travel and engage in public appearances on behalf of the Church.  He also says that McCarrick became a sort of emissary and “kingmaker” djring the Francis papacy, facilititating the rise of notoriously gay friendly clergy such as Cardinals Blase Cupich, Donald Wuerl (McCarricks successor as Archbishop of Washingtonk, and Joseph Tobin of Newark, McCarrick’s previous diocese  before his appointment to Washington as well as the sudden ascent of Bishop Ilson de Jesus Montanari as Secretary of the Congregation of Bishops and of the College of Cardinals..

 

The accusations which also include numerous explosivve claims about complicity by various cardinals, bishops, and curial officials are being called an “earthquake” by mainstream media, and curial officials reportedly are call it an “atomic bomb”.   Bishops and other members of the Church hierarchy are calling for an investigation of Pope Francis, who is refusing to answer questions about Vigano’s testimony.

Pope Benendict’s confirmation that he gave instructions to Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertoni to penalize McCarrick tends to confirm Bertone’s ivolvement in the case, which Vigano suspects was a cause of delays in the disciplining of the sex abuser, which did not occur until 2009 or 2010, acccording to Vigano.

I believe it (the delay ( was due to the Pope’s first collaborator at the time, Cardinal Tacisio Bertone, who notoriously favored promoting homosexuals into positions of responsibility, and was accustomed  to managing the information he thought appropriate to convey to the Pope,” writes Vigano.

Archbishop Vigano’s accusations have also been corroborated by the former first counsellar at the apostolic nunciature in Washington, D.C., Monsignor Jean-Francois Lantheaume, in an interview with Catholic  News  Agency.

In response to Vigano’s claim that Lantheaume heard the then Apostolic Nunci o Pietro Sambi  lambast Cardianla McCarrick over his sexually abusive behavior, Lantheaume told Catholic News Agency “Vigano said the truth.  That’s all”