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June 3, 2019
Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI had imposed restrictions on the public ministry of former Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick in 2008, but they were not formal sanctions and were not followed strictly, even during the papacy of Pope Benedict himself, McCarrick’s former secretary said.
Msgr. Anthony J. Figueiredo, who was the former cardinal’s secretary for nine months in 1994-1995, but continued to assist him from Rome, released extracts from correspondence May 28, saying he wanted the truth out about what was known about McCarrick, when and by whom.
Besides knowing about the restrictions himself, the monsignor also said he had evidence that recently retired Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington knew about them, as did Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, then-prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, then-Vatican secretary of state, and Archbishop Pietro Sambi, who was nuncio to the United States at the time.
Msgr. Figueiredo said he decided to publish online excerpts of correspondence in his possession – available at http://thefigueiredoreport.com/ – after attempting “since September 2018 to share and discuss these with the Holy See and other church leaders.” He did not publish the full texts of any of the correspondence or emails he quoted online.
The monsignor, who in October was suspended from driving in England for 18 months after pleading guilty for drunk driving and hitting a car driven by a pregnant woman, said in his online report that “the hierarchy’s abuse of authority and cover-up, in their various and serious manifestations, have inflicted consequences upon me,” including by “seeking consolation in alcohol.”
Pope Francis removed McCarrick from the priesthood in February after he was found guilty of “solicitation in the sacrament of confession and sins against the Sixth Commandment with minors and with adults, with the aggravating factor of the abuse of power.”
After an initial investigation in the Archdiocese of New York, the Vatican ordered McCarrick’s removal from ministry last June. A month later, Pope Francis accepted his resignation from the College of Cardinals.
In August, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, a former nuncio to the United States, published a document calling on Pope Francis to resign because, he claimed, Pope Francis had known there were sanctions on McCarrick and not only did he lift them, he allegedly made McCarrick a trusted confidante and adviser on bishops’ appointments in the United States.
Archbishop Vigano later clarified that Pope Benedict issued the sanctions “privately” either because McCarrick was already retired or because the pope thought “he was ready to obey.”
Cardinal Marc Ouellet, current prefect of the congregation, in a response to Archbishop Vigano’s allegations, said in October that McCarrick “was strongly exhorted not to travel and not to appear in public so as not to provoke further rumors” about his sexual misconduct.
However, Cardinal Ouellet said, “it is false to present these measures taken in his regard as ‘sanctions’ decreed by Pope Benedict XVI and annulled by Pope Francis. After re-examining the archives, I certify that there are no such documents signed by either pope.”