Pope Francis on Monday
called for silence and prayer as "some people seek only scandal"
after former US nuncio Carlo Maria Viganò accused the pope of
covering for sex offender Theodore McCarrick, bishop of
Washington, and said Francis should resign.
Francis did not refer to the Viganò scandal but said the only
way forward was one of "prayer and silence".
He said "truth is mild, truth is silence".
Some people, he said in St Martha's House, "seek only
scandal, they seek only division".
Viganò's bombshell accusations that Francis shielded
McCarrick from sanctions allegedly imposed by his predecessor
Benedict XVI have deepened a rift between conservatives and
progressives in the Catholic Church.
Benedict XVI's secretary Msgr Georg Gaenswein told ANSA
Thursday that the ex pope has not confirmed the content of the
letter from Viganò saying Francis covered up sex crimes by
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 having sex
with adult seminarians and groping a 17-year-old boy.
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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