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Reports that Benedict XVI confirmed some of Archbishop Carlo Viganò’s claims about a cover-up of ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s abuse of seminarians are “fake news.”
Archbishop Georg Gänswein, who is the prefect of the papal household for Pope Francis, says Pope-emeritus Benedict “has not commented” on an 11-page letter from Viganò, which was released by the press on 25 August.
The letter alleges Benedict placed sanctions on McCarrick in 2008 or 2009 that barred McCarrick from celebrating Mass publicly or traveling, and ordered him to live a life of prayer and penance.
The National Catholic Register (NCR), one of two outlets that originally published Viganò’s letter, said in its 25 August article that it had “independently confirmed that the allegations against McCarrick were certainly known to Benedict.”
Three days later, the New York Times reported that one of the people Viganò consulted with while writing his statement was US lawyer Timothy Busch.
Busch is on the board of governors of EWTN, which owns NCR.
Busch told the Times that NCR editors “had personally assured him that the former pope, Benedict XVI, had confirmed Archbishop Viganò’s account.”
Gänswein says any reports that Benedict had confirmed parts of Viganò’s statement “lack any foundation.”
Claims about Benedict’s “sanctions’ against McCarrick are also contradicted by historical records.
These include, for example, McCarrick being seen celebrating numerous public Masses throughout Benedict’s papacy and continuing to travel around the world until June this year.
That was when the Vatican announced it had ordered his removal from ministry over an accusation of abuse that had been deemed credible.
Since the release of Viganò’s statement, numerous photos have emerged of McCarrick at the Vatican after 2009, including one of him greeting Benedict on 28 February 2013, the day he renounced the papacy.
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