Pope’s leading Vatican critic blames homosexuality for abuse crisis

Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano issued a third instalment on Friday in the war of words over the cover-up of ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick.

He was responding to a Vatican cardinal who had rebuked him and accused him of mounting a “blasphemous” political hit job against Francis with his claims.

Mr Vigano has accused Francis of effectively rehabilitating Mr McCarrick, 88, from restrictions imposed during Pope Benedict XVI’s papacy because of allegations he pressured seminarians to sleep with him.

He has called for Francis to resign over the McCarrick scandal, which has sparked a crisis of confidence in the US and Vatican hierarchy.

Francis has responded to the McCarrick allegations by removing him as a cardinal, over an allegation he molested a minor, and by ordering a Vatican investigation into its archives to determine how Mr McCarrick rose through the ranks despite allegations he also molested adults.

Pre-empting the outcome, Cardinal Marc Oullet, who heads the Vatican’s bishops’ office, penned a letter on October 4 saying he had gone through his archives and found no evidence of any formal canonical sanctions signed by any pope.

In his new missive, Mr Vigano accurately noted that Mr Ouellet actually confirmed the core of his allegations: that Mr McCarrick was placed under some form of restriction, not necessarily formal sanctions, because of alleged sexual…