Another Whistle-blower Among the Clergy

By Robert Mickens
LaCroix International
May 31, 2019

https://international.la-croix.com/news/another-whistle-blower-among-the-clergy/10235

When Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano called on Pope Francis to resign last summer for allegedly covering up the sexual crimes of the former cardinal Theodore McCarrick, it was "like an earthquake for the Church."That's how Monsignor Anthony Figueiredo, a former Vatican official and a longtime consultant for CBS News, described Vigano's "testimony," an 11-page dossier of accusations and innuendos that targeted the pope and nearly a dozen high-ranking Vatican prelates. Msgr. Figueiredo, a priest from the Archdiocese of Newark (New Jersey) who has been living in Rome since 2006, immediately defended Vigano's credibility."I know him personally," he told CBS. "I know him as a man of great integrity, honest to the core. He's worked for three different popes, and [was] sent to a Vatican position, a diplomatic position as big as the United States, which means he's a trusted man."The very bright and articulate Newark priest vouched for Vigano on Aug. 27, 2018, just one day after the former papal nuncio carefully coordinated with LifeSite News and the National Catholic Register to publish his 11 pages of accusations.Taking Vigano's leadNow nine months later Msgr. Figueiredo is back in the news. And how!Following in the footsteps of his friend or acquaintance, Archbishop Vigano, the 55-year-old priest has become the latest clergyman with a public profile to blow the whistle on Church cover-up in the hierarchy.He did so this past May 28 when he released – simultaneously through CBS and the Catholic publication, Crux – excerpts of personal correspondence with McCarrick, a man whom (you will see in a moment) he once considered a father figure and patron.These carefully chosen excerpts reinforce claims made by Vigano and others that a number of high-ranking Church officials were aware that Benedict XVI had quietly placed restrictions on the former cardinal but they did nothing to enforce them.Most notable among the accused is Cardinal...