Tablet Editors Think of the victims, not the politics

29 August 2018 

Tablet Editors

Think of the victims, not the politics

The brief visit of Pope Francis to Ireland to attend the World Meeting of Families may be judged a qualified success, in that it did not make things worse for the Catholic Church and may even have started to make them better. Many of those alienated from the Church were willing to view Francis warmly on a personal level, even if they insist, reasonably, he has not done nearly enough to confront the scandal of child abuse in the Church. The best prospects for the Irish Catholic Church, therefore, may lie in its ability to remodel itself in the humble, warm and open style that he himself embodies – provided he can also restore trust in the Church’s ability to guarantee the safety of children.
It is all the more disturbing, therefore, that what seems to be a deliberate attempt to discredit his papacy was launched bang in the middle of the Pope’s Irish visit. Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the former apostolic nuncio to the United States and previously a high Vatican official, released an 11-page letter filled with grave allegations against more than 30 named church officials in the Vatican and elsewhere, including Pope Francis himself. The broad sweep of his “testimony” is that the government of the Catholic Church has succumbed to a mafia-like conspiracy organised by a network of homosexual clergy at all levels of seniority. Their assumed purpose is not only to promote themselves and each other to positions of influence, but also to progressively undermine the Church’s traditional teaching on homosexuality.

Despite the consensus amongst scientists who have studied the subject that homosexuals are no more likely to be paedophiles than heterosexuals or bisexuals, Archbishop Viganò sees a clear link between homosexuality and paedophilia. Hence those in authority who are involved in this conspiracy, he implies, have an interest in covering up instances of child abuse they know of. He claims that the recently deposed cardinal Theodore McCarrick, former Archbishop of Washington, was placed under heavy sanctions by Pope Benedict in 2009 or 2010 after allegations of abuse surfaced some years before, and was ordered to withdraw completely from public ministry. Pope Francis lifted those sanctions, he goes on, in spite of knowing why they had been imposed. Francis then allowed himself to be influenced by former Cardinal McCarrick over key appointments in the US Church, leading to the promotion of men of a liberal (meaning pro-homosexual) tendency.
The allegation specifically against Pope Francis lacks credibility. Former Cardinal McCarrick continued under Pope Benedict to perform public duties and continued to be welcomed in the Vatican. There is nevertheless an urgent need to examine the alleged factual basis for a number of other assertions, for instance that Cardinal Donald Wuerl, current Archbishop of Washington, knew all about the supposed sanctions on his predecessor and chose to ignore them. Cardinal Wuerl denies this. However, there were persistent rumours about McCarrick’s misconduct among Catholics who knew him.
The United States bishops’ conference has already called for an independent inquiry into the handling of abuse allegations in the US Church, and Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, its President, has announced that he will ask Pope Francis to extend its terms of reference to include matters raised by Archbishop Viganò. Independence and transparency are vital to its success, and there must be an experienced and qualified figure in charge of it. The Benedictine monks of Ealing Abbey set a helpful precedent in 2010 when they briefed Lord Carlile QC to lead an inquiry into abuse at the school attached to the abbey.
Meanwhile the enemies of Francis are using Viganò’s document to support calls for the Pope and numerous other church leaders, to resign. They are manipulating the child abuse scandal – which is certainly serious, and which has hurt countless victims – for their own political purposes. This is not the way to make the Church well again.