Pope Francis vows to end sexual abuse after two-year investigation finds Cardinal McCarrick guilty
Pope Francis is vowing to rid the Catholic Church of sexual abuse and offering prayers to victims of ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick
Your support helps us to tell the story
This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.
The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.
Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.
Pope Francis pledged Wednesday to rid the Catholic Church of sexual abuse and offered prayers to victims of ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick a day after the Vatican released a detailed report into the decades-long church cover-up of his sexual misconduct.
Francis concluded his weekly general audience Wednesday by recalling that the report into the “painful case” of the former high-ranking American cardinal had been released the previous day.
“I renew my closeness to victims of any abuse and commitment of the church to eradicate this evil,” Francis said. He then paused silently for nearly a minute, apparently in prayer.
The Vatican report blamed a host of bishops, cardinals and popes for downplaying and dismissing mountains of evidence of McCarrick’s misconduct starting in the 1990s. The report blamed St. John Paul II, however, for having appointed McCarrick archbishop of Washington in 2000, and made him a cardinal, despite having commissioned an inquiry that found he shared his bed with seminarians.
In his remarks Wednesday, however, Francis held John Paul up for praise. Noting that Wednesday marked Poland's independence day, Francis quoted John Paul as telling young people what it means to be truly free.
“While we thank the Lord for the gift of national and personal freedom, what St. John Paul II taught young people comes to mind," Francis said. He then cited the Polish pope as saying that being free means being “a man of upright conscience, to be responsible, to be a man ‘for others.’”
Francis defrocked the 90-year-old McCarrick last year after a separate Vatican investigation found he sexually abused adults as well as children.
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.