(LifeSiteNews) — In a social media post on Wednesday, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò accused Pope Francis, who he refers to by his surname Bergoglio, of committing “the same abuses” as the notorious, now-laicized Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.
“On 23 June 2013 when I met Bergoglio at the Domus Sanctæ Marthæ – as already extensively reported in my Memorial of August 22, 2018 – he asked me ex abrupto: ‘What is Cardinal McCarrick like?’” Archbishop Viganò wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
On 23 June 2013 when I met Bergoglio at the Domus Sanctæ Marthæ – as already extensively reported in my Memorial of August 22, 2018 – he asked me ex abrupto: «What is Cardinal McCarrick like?»
I replied to him: « Holy Father, I don’t know if you know Cardinal McCarrick, but if… pic.twitter.com/Oea6E7hCnN
— Arcivescovo Carlo Maria Viganò (@CarloMVigano) May 29, 2024
“I replied to him: ‘Holy Father, I don’t know if you know Cardinal McCarrick, but if you ask the Congregation for Bishops, there is a dossier this big. He corrupted generations of seminarians … ,’” the former U.S. apostolic nuncio continued, adding that “Bergoglio remained impassive and completely changed the subject.”
READ: Vatican issues statement apologizing for Pope Francis using ‘homophobic’ term
“His reaction is not surprising,” Archbishop Viganò wrote. “Bergoglio himself committed the same abuses when he was Master of Novices of the Society of Jesus in Argentina, as personally confided to me by one of his former novices.”
Concluding, the archbishop stated:
Bergoglio does not want to oust homosexual seminarians and priests: He rather wants to complete the work of infiltration and corruption of the clergy through homosexuality and pedophilia, so that by declassifying the serious sinfulness of sodomy and corruption of minors the door opens on the civil front to decriminalization of these crimes. (Emphasis included in the original)
On the other hand, the same scurrilous terminology typical of the environments that the Argentine Jesuit deplores in words betrays his familiarity with corrupt people accustomed to speaking to him in this way.
The protection and promotions granted to countless corrupt and perverted cardinals, bishops and priests; the buses of transvestites invited on several occasions to the Vatican; private hearings for transsexual and homosexual couples in concubinage; the scandalous LGBTQ+ media spotlight granted to James Martin, S.J.; the shameful promotion of Tucho Fernandez to Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith; the recent appointments of two Canons of Santa Maria Maggiore who are known throughout the city of Rome as homosexuals, all confirm Bergoglio’s membership of the lobby to which he owes his nomination (and I am deliberately not calling it his ‘election’).
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LifeSiteNews reached out to Archbishop Viganò to determine what specifically he is accusing Francis of doing but has yet to receive a reply.
As for McCarrick, he was once one of the most influential prelates in the United States. Ordained by New York’s Cardinal Francis Spellman in 1958, he was eventually named archbishop of Washington in 2000 and a cardinal in 2001. After retiring, the then-cardinal maintained his influence as a globe-trotting fundraiser.
READ: Argentinian bishop previously defended by Pope Francis found guilty of sexually abusing seminarians
His ecclesiastical career came to a definitive end only in 2017 after a credible allegation that he had sexually molested a teenage boy was received by the Archdiocese of New York. It was then discovered by the public that rumors of his predatory behavior had swirled around Church circles for decades and that settlements had been made to victims.
McCarrick was laicized in 2019 after a Vatican investigation concluded that he had sexually abused both children and adults, including young priests and seminarians.
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