Pope Francis is
"embittered" by a letter written by Carlo Maria 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.
The former Vatican diplomat said in the document that Pope
Francis had protected the former Washington DC archbishop,
Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who is accused of sexually abusing
young 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 abuse 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 as Vatican city governor.
"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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