Benedict XVI's secretary
Msgr Georg Gaenswein told ANSA Thursday that the ex pope has not
confirmed the content of a letter from former US nuncio Carlo
Maria Viganò saying Pope Francis covered up sex crimes by
ex-Washington archbishop Theodore McCarrick and should resign.
Gaenswein confirmed to ANSA what he had already said, calling
the report Benedict had backed Viganò "fake news, a lie".
He said the pope emeritus had not commented on the letter and
would not do so in future either.
Pope Francis is "embittered" by a letter written by Viganò,
the former top Vatican diplomat in the United States, which said
Francis should step down for allegedly covering up a top US
bishop's sex abuse, his close collaborators told ANSA Wednesday.
The former Vatican diplomat said in the document that
Francis had protected McCarrick, who is accused of sexually
abusing seminarians.
The pope is not considering resigning, however, the sources
said.
Viganò said he told Francis about McCarrick in 2013, saying
he had been sanctioned by former pope Benedict XVI, but Francis
did nothing about it.
Francis has said he will not dignify Viganò's allegations
with a reply.
The case has pitted conservative critics of Francis against
progressive supporters who say the traditionalists are
"weaponising" child abuse to attack the pope's mercy-over-morals
approach.
Viganò also claimed there was a powerful gay lobby in the
Church he blamed for the many scandals on abuse and cover-ups,
naming names.
On Wednesday Viganò, who was previously involved in the
Vatileaks case, said in an interview that he was not pursuing a
vendetta for having been replaced as nuncio to the US in 2016,
or previously losing his place in the Vatican government.
"I have never had feelings of revenge or rancour in all these
years," he said.
He denied being a "poison-pen letter writer", saying "I am
accustomed to doing things in the light of day."
Viganò, one of the conservatives who have criticised Francis
for opening up to gays and remarried divorcés while denouncing
'clericalism', unfettered capitalism and climate change, was
speaking to journalist Aldo Maria Valli who published the
interview on his blog on Vatican affairs.
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