The Viganò memories: An analytic chronology of events

Thursday, September 6th, 2018

Saint John Paul II died in April 2005 and can no longer speak.

The Pope Emeritus Benedict, his collaborators explain, has absolutely no intention of saying anything about the whole thing.

Pope Francis invited journalists to read what was written by the former nuncio Carlo Maria Viganò in his j’accuse that tries to involve three Popes in the case of the cardinal – serial harasser of seminarians (later discovered also abuser of minors) – Theodore McCarrick.

Here is a comprehensive and reasoned chronology of the news that has emerged so far, along with the first denials of Viganò’s manifesto through witness statements and documentary evidence.

1994

A priest (presumably Gregory Littleton) writes to the Bishop of Metuchen, Edward Thomas Hughes, speaking of the sexual and psychological abuse that Bishop Theodore Edgar McCarrick (born in 1930, ordained priest in New York in 1958, ordained auxiliary bishop of New York in 1977, moved to Metuchen in 1981, then promoted to Newark in 1986), inflicted on him.

He claims that McCarrick left him so traumatized that he himself had harassed by two 15-year-old boys.

The priest was removed and reduced to the lay state ten years later, following the entry into force of the new anti-pedophilia rules, based on the admissions contained in that letter.

21 November 2000

John Paul II appoints Theodore McCarrick Archbishop of Washington.

The nuncio to the United States is Gabriel Montalvo, the Prefect of the Congregation of Bishops (who has been in office for a few weeks) is Giovanni Battista Re. According to Viganò’s hypothesis, the Cardinal Secretary of State, Angelo Sodano played an important role in the nomination.

Viganò states that Re would have opposed it because McCarrick’s name was only the 14th on the list of candidates.

In his statement Viganò does not mention in any way the name of John Paul II’s personal secretary, Bishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, who is very close to Re.

Dziwisz is in fact one of the most influential people in Pope Wojtyla’s entourage.

From Viganò’s story emerges a deplorable and offensive portrait of the Pontiff now proclaimed saint.

The former nuncio in fact recalls that John Paul II was “already very ill” suggesting he was so sick that he was no longer able to take care of the appointments, not even the most important ones, not even those that led – at that time – the sure attribution of the cardinal’s hat and therefore inclusion in a future conclave.

In 2000 Pope Wojtyla had still 5 more years to go.

That same year, in addition to presiding over dozens of Jubilee celebrations, he visited Egypt, the Holy Land (Jordan, Israel, Palestinian Territories) and Fatima.
A few months before McCarrick’s nomination, in February 2000, Pope Wojtyla nominated the new Archbishop of Westminster, Cormac Murphy-O’Connor; then in June 2000, he nominated Edward Michael Egan as Archbishop of New York.
At the beginning of the following year, as we shall see, John Paul II created 44 new cardinals in a single consistory.
After McCarrick in Washington he nominated – to give some examples limited to some metropolitan seats only- Angelo Scola to the Patriarchate of Venice (January 2002); Philippe Barbarin to archbishop of Lyon (July 2002); Péter Erdo to archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest (December 2002); Tarcisio Bertone in Genoa (December 2002); Diarmuid Martin as coadjutor archbishop of Dublin (May 2003); Gaudencio Rosales as archbishop of Manila (December 2003); Lluís Martinez Sistach as archbishop of Barcelona (June 2004).

Karol Wojtyla, despite the slow progress of the disease that was inhibiting his motor skills, is a Pontiff who continues to travel and govern the Church.

Anyone who has followed Vatican events knows that attempting to present the Pope – in the year 2000 – as a man incapable of understanding and deciding for himself, is a falsehood.

22 November 2000

Dominican friar Boniface Ramsey wrote a letter to nuncio Montalvo in which he reported rumors of McCarrick’s improper behavior towards seminarians and said he knew some of these seminarians and priests. Ramsey announces the arrival of the same letter to Montalvo by phone, then changes his mind after a conversation with a friend, and calls the nuncio to tell him he had second thoughts.

But during this second conversation – as Ramsey himself tells the National Catholic Register – the nuncio persuaded him to send it anyway.

The document probably does not pass through the office of the Delegate for the Pontifical Representations, Carlo Maria Viganò.

According to the memorandum, Viganò will have news of this first letter containing accusations only in 2006, by the new nuncio Pietro Sambi.

Yet he insists on blaming only Cardinal Sodano who received it in November 2000, without however indicating any evidence: “the office that I held at the time was not informed of any measure taken by the Holy See after those charges were brought by Nuncio Montalvo at the end of 2000, when Cardinal Angelo Sodano was Secretary of State”.

January-February 2001

Theodore McCarrick takes office as Archbishop of Washington. On 21 February of the same year he received the red hat from John Paul II, in the most crowded Consistory in the history of the Church: 44 new cardinals. Among these there are many Latin Americans and Jorge Mario Bergoglio himself.

2004 –2005

According to the spokesman for the diocese of Metuchen, Erin Friedlander, in 2004 the first complaint against McCarrick arrived at the diocese.

Two more will follow, all relating to events of previous decades.

The Archdiocese of Newark and the Dioceses of Metuchen and Trenton are paying settlements to Robert Ciolek, who was harassed by McCarrick, but which also includes another settlement for the abuses that Ciolek had suffered from a teacher while he was a student in a Catholic high school.

According to the spokesman for the diocese of Metuchen, the settlement was reported to the nunciature.

April 2005

McCarrick participated in the pre-Conclave congregations and then in the Conclave that elected Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger Pope on 19 April of that year.

July 7, 2005

McCarrick turns 75 and sends – as required at this age – his renunciation to the Holy See.

16 May 2006

McCarrick’s renunciation was accepted by Benedict XVI, eight months after the canonical age: it was not a long period (metropolitan archbishops with the red hat, if in good health, can remain at least a year – often even two – after turning 75); yet it was not even that short of a period to suggest that Rome wanted to give a punitive signal to the Archbishop of Washington.

Instead of McCarrick, Pope Ratzinger appoints Donald Wuerl.

McCarrick’s retirement occurs after the first claim for compensation to the Diocese of Newark.

June 2006

Former priest Gregory Littleton (his name in full had never been made public, it is Viganò who disclosed it for the first time) denounces to the diocese of Metuchen the abuses suffered by McCarrick during his time as bishop there: he will be paid 100,000 dollars in compensation.

Also in this case, being a bishop (and later a cardinal), the diocese is obliged to inform the apostolic nunciature in the United States.

The spokesperson for the Diocese of Metuchen says today that the report had been duly filed. Continue reading