WASHINGTON (DC)
The Weekly Standard

August 30, 2018

By Philip Luke Jeffery

The Francis pontificate has always emphasized the importance of mercy. How will that come into play in the sex abuse scandal?

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò’s letter accusing Pope Francis of aiding the cover-up of ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s sexual abuse of minors and seminarians has put certain Vatican officials on the defensive, and is sparking some revealing reactions. Earlier this week, Cardinal Blase Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago, dismissed calls to investigate Viganò’s claims in an interview on Chicago’s NBC 5, saying “the pope has a bigger agenda, he’s got to get on with other things, of talking about the environment, and protecting migrants, and carrying on the work of the church. We’re not going to go down a rabbit hole on this.”

To paraphrase the pope’s own response to Viganò, “make your own judgment”…