Pope orders 'thorough study' of Vatican papers on disgraced cardinal

Pope Francis
(Image credit: Andreas Solaro/Getty Images)

Pope Francis has authorized a "thorough study," the Vatican said Saturday, of all its documents pertaining to the sexual abuse allegations against Theodore McCarrick, a prominent cardinal and former archbishop of Washington, D.C., who resigned in July.

An August letter from Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano alleged McCarrick's misconduct with seminarians was known in Catholic hierarchy for years, and that Francis removed sanctions against him despite this knowledge. The letter called for Francis himself to resign.

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.