VATICAN CITY
The Associated Press

February 5, 2018

Pope Francis has insisted that no victims stepped forward, but the letter from Juan Carlos Cruz was hand-delivered in 2015.

The letter was graphic not just in describing how the priest kissed and fondled the boy, but also in how other priests who saw the abuse tried to hush it up. Pope Francis said recently that none of the victims had come forward to denounce the cover-up, so the news that the letter was hand-delivered to Francis in 2015 is adding fuel to one of the biggest scandals of his five-year papacy.

The Associated Press obtained the eight-page letter, written in Francis’ native Spanish, and was told by both the victim who wrote it and by members of the pope’s sex-abuse commission that Francis’ top adviser assured them he gave it to the pope.

The pope’s trip to…