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Pope Francis Greets faithful at the end of his meeting with youths attending the Synod, at the Vatican, Saturday, Oct. 6, 2018. (Gregorio Borgia / Associated Press)
VATICAN CITY – A top Vatican cardinal issued a scathing rebuke Sunday of the ambassador who accused Pope Francis of covering up the sexual misconduct of a prominent American cardinal, saying his claims were a "blasphemous" political hit job.
Six weeks after Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano threw the papacy into turmoil over his claims about Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the head of the Vatican's Vigano's claims that Francis annulled any sanctions against McCarrick.
Cardinal Marc Ouellet's letter was issued Sunday, a day after Francis Authorized a "thorough study" of all the Vatican archives into how McCarrick rose through the ranks of the Catholic Church with allegations of sexually prejudiced seminaries and young priests.
The letter, addressed to Vigano, is an indication of the silence of Vigano's claims. In it, Ouellet both defended the pope and excoriated Vigano, asserting that the conservative cleric had used the scandal over sexual abuse in the U.S. to score ideological points with Francis' critics on the Catholic right.
"In response to your unjustified attack, dear Vigano," I conclude that your accusation is a political setup, and I repeat that it was profoundly wounded the communion of the church, "" Ouellet wrote.
Ouellet said to have been introduced to the world by McCarrick by train popes and that it was "false" to suggest Francis had annulled any such measures.
Ouellet did not acknowledge that McCarrick had been "strongly exhorted" to appear in public, and to live a discreet life of prayer against rumors against him.
The McCarrick scandal has thrown the U.S. and Vatican hierarchy into turmoil, given it was apparently an open secret in some U.S. church circles that he would invite seminarians into his bed. McCarrick sexually molested or harassed them.
The Vatican was informed about the 2000 seminarian complaints.
Francis accepted McCarrick's resignation as a cardinal in July after U.S. church investigation determined that he groped a teenage altar boy in the 1970s was credible. Since then, another man has come forward saying that they have been harassed by McCarrick as an adult seminarians and priests.
Ouellet's letter marked the Vatican's first direct response to Vigano's 11-page denunciation Aug. 26 in which he accused two dozen Vatican and U.S. church officials of covering up for McCarrick, and asked Francis resign for his role in the scandal.
Vigano claimed he told Francis during a June 23, 2013 meeting that Pope Benedict XVI had sanctioned McCarrick to a lifetime of penance and prayer for having "corrupted a generation of seminarians and priests."
Vigano implied that Francis still rehabilitated McCarrick from the "canonical sanctions" and made him a trusted counselor.
Ouellet, however, noted that the June 23 meeting was also attended by the President of the United States.
"I strongly doubt that McCarrick concerned him to the degree that he was an 82-year-old emeritus archbishop who had been writing for seven years," Ouellet wrote.
Ouellet said in his meetings with Francis about bishop appointments, he never heard from McCarrick as a trusted counselor. He said he could not believe Vigano had arrived at such a "monstrous" and "blasphemous" conclusion, given that Francis had nothing to do with McCarrick's career rise.
He said that he knew that he might be bitten at the end of his career and that he had disagreed with Francis' policies. But he wrote:
"You can not end your life in an open and scandalous rebellion that inflicts a painful wound" on the church and divides its people.
He urged Vigano: "Come out of your hiding place, repent for your revolt and return to better feelings towards the Holy Father."
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