Pope Francis pledges to rid the Catholic Church of sexual abuse and offers prayers for victims of ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick, a day after the Vatican released a detailed report into the decadeslong church cover-up of his sexual misconduct.
Francis concludes his weekly general audience by recalling that the report into the “painful case” of the former high-ranking American cardinal was released the previous day.
“I renew my closeness to victims of any abuse and commitment of the church to eradicate this evil,” Francis says. He then pauses silently for nearly a minute, apparently in prayer.
In this March 4, 2015, photo, Cardinal Theodore Edgar McCarrick speaks during a memorial service in South Bend, Indiana. (Robert Franklin/South Bend Tribune via AP, Pool, File)
The Vatican report blamed a host of bishops, cardinals and popes for downplaying and dismissing mountains of evidence of McCarrick’s misconduct starting in the 1990s. In particular, it blamed St. John Paul II for having appointed McCarrick archbishop of Washington in 2000, and making him a cardinal, despite having commissioned an inquiry that found he shared his bed with seminarians.
— AP
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