In an 11-page statement, the senior Vatican official said that sanctions imposed on McCarrick by Pope Benedict XVI over sexual misconduct were lifted under Francis, despite reports about his “gravely immoral behaviour with seminarians and priests.”
Vigano, 77, allegesd that Pope Francis continued to cover McCarrick despite the sanctions.
“In this extremely dramatic moment for the universal church, he must acknowledge his mistakes and, in keeping with the proclaimed principle of zero tolerance, Pope Francis must be the first to set a good example for cardinals and bishops who covered up McCarrick’s abuses and resign along with all of them,” he said.
The call has come at the time sexual abuse crisis deepens in the Roman Catholic Church. The global clerical sex abuse crisis has ignited protests in Ireland as the pontiff visited the country on Saturday and Sunday with protesters calling for action against the suspects rather than mere Pope’s apologies.
Damning reports in the United States, Chile and Australia have always pointed at the institutional cover-ups.
Aljazeera reports that Vigano said he informed Francis in person in 2013 of the sanctions and how McCarrick, ex-archbishop of Washington, DC, “corrupted generations of seminarians and priests”.
The Vatican had no immediate comment on the allegations.
Vigano, a conservative has long been seen as a critic of Pope Francis, who is viewed as more moderate.
Colm O’Gorman, an author, activist, and church abuse survivor, said the letter from Vigano was a “fairly shocking development”.
“In the 2,000-year history of the church, no senior church official has ever come out and called on a pope to resign,” O’Gorman told Aljazeera.
“I think we need to be careful because Vigano has an agenda of his own. There’s an ideological battle going on inside the church – that’s part of what’s at play here… I am surprised it’s emerged from such a high level within the hierarchy of the church. But it’s something the Vatican is going to have to respond to.”
Vigano’s statement was first published in the National Catholic Register, the conservative American publication.
An investigation was launched after a man claimed he was sexually abused by McCarrick when he was 11 years old. Similar allegations were made against McCarrick by other men who were seminarians.
McCarrick resigned as cardinal in July after being sacked from official duties in June.
A recent US grand jury report into sexual misconduct and cover-ups found 300 priests abused more than 1,000 children over 70 years in the state of Pennsylvania while senior church officials took steps to conceal it.
Vigano himself has had his own problems with allegations of trying to hide the truth.
The coverup accusation, which Vigano denied, concerned accusations he tried to quash an investigation into a former archbishop accused of misconduct.
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