For traditionalists, Martin’s invitation from the Vatican to speak last week in Dublin at a massive World Meeting of Families event was proof of how Francis is gradually eroding church teachings on sexuality. Before Francis landed in Dublin, a group of 400 dissidents met for two days at a hotel for what one organizer called a gathering to promote “the authentic teachings of the Catholic Church.” And in Madison, Wis., responding to the church’s sex abuse crisis, Bishop Robert Morlino wrote in a letter to Catholics in his diocese that “it is time to admit that there is a homosexual subculture within the hierarchy of the Catholic Church.”<doc-sep>Pope Francis told reporters on a flight from Ireland to Rome on Sunday that he would not comment on an archbishop's call for him to resign after the archbishop accused Francis of knowing about sexual allegations against a cardinal, but doing nothing about it, in 2013. "I will not say a word on this," Francis told reporters, according to CNN. "I read the statement this morning, and I must tell you sincerely.… Read the statement and make your own judgment." Francis told the reporters that he might speak on the issue sometime in the future. "When some time passes and you have drawn your conclusions, I may speak. But I would like your professional maturity to do the work for you. It will be good for you," Francis said. Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, a staunch conservative who is known for his anti-gay views and who is the former Vatican ambassador to the U.S., wrote in a statement on August 22 that he told the pope in 2013 about allegations being made against Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, former head of the Washington archdiocese, but was ignored. Pope Francis accepted McCarrick's resignation last month following an investigation which found that the accusations of sexual assault made by a minor were true. "In this extremely dramatic moment for the universal Church, he must acknowledge his mistakes and, in keeping with the proclaimed principle of zero tolerance, Pope Francis must be the first to set a good example to Cardinals and Bishops who covered up McCarrick's abuses and resign along with all of them," Vigano wrote in a statement, according to CBS. McCarrick maintains his innocence despite the allegations being found credible. In a press release from June, he said his "sadness deepened" when he learned of the outcome of the investigation. "I realize this painful development will shock my many friends, family members, and people I have been honored to serve in my 60 years as a priest," the former cardinal said, according to the press release. He went on to say that he had "absolutely no recollection" of the abuse and that he was "sorry for the pain the person who brought the charges has gone through." While in Ireland, Francis asked for forgiveness for sex abuses committed by members of the church. "This open wound challenges us to be firm and decisive in the pursuit of truth and justice. I beg the Lord's forgiveness for these sins and for the scandal and betrayal felt by so many others in God's family," Francis said at the National Marian Shrine in Knock, Ireland.<doc-sep>Cardinals attend the religious mass 'Pro Eligendo Romano Pontifice' at Saint Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, Vatican City, 12 March 2013. The Catholic Church's 115 cardinal electors are taking part in a mass in St. Peter's Basilica on 12 March ahead of entering the conclave for a papal election that observers say has no clear favourite. The Pro Eligendo Romano Pontefice ('For the Election of the Roman Pontiff') mass is presided by Angelo Sodano, the elderly dean of the College of Cardinals, and is also open to non-voting cardinals - those aged more than 80. The next pope will take over a Church beset by infighting, scandal and dwindling support, particularly in the West. VanSickle: I pray for the soul of my abuser While you're in Rome, take in the night view at St. Peter's Basilica of St. Peter. It's in Vatican City, which is technically a tiny, separate country that's completely surrounded by the much larger city of Rome. VATICAN CITY, VATICAN - MARCH 13: A woman holds rosary beads while she prays and waits for smoke to emanate from the chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel which will indicate whether or not the College of Cardinals have elected a new Pope on March 13, 2013 in Vatican City, Vatican. Pope Benedict XVI's successor is being chosen by the College of Cardinals in Conclave in the Sistine Chapel. The 115 cardinal-electors, meeting in strict secrecy, will need to reach a two-thirds-plus-one vote majority to elect the 266th Pontiff. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images) Cardinal Dolan: Sex abuse stories not new to me German Bishops take part in the opening mass at the German Bishops' Conference on September 25, 2018 in the cathedral in Fulda, western Germany. - Germany's Catholic Church is due on September 25, 2018 to confess and apologise for thousands of cases of sexual abuse against children, part of a global scandal heaping pressure on the Vatican. It will release the latest in a series of reports on sexual crimes and cover-ups spanning decades that has shaken the largest Christian Church, from Europe to the United States, South America and Australia. (Photo by Arne Dedert / dpa / AFP) / Germany OUT (Photo credit should read ARNE DEDERT/AFP/Getty Images) Pope Francis (L) speaks speaks with the Archbishop of Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl at the end of a midday prayer with US bishops at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, DC, on September 23, 2015 on the second day of his visit to the US. AFP PHOTO/NICHOLAS KAMM (Photo credit should read NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images) Pope Francis celebrates mass on Christmas eve marking the birth of Jesus Christ on December 24, 2017 at St Peter's basilica in Vatican. / AFP PHOTO / Andreas SOLARO (Photo credit should read ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP/Getty Images) (CNN) — Even before Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano called for Pope Francis to resign on Sunday, the two men had a history, and it wasn’t good. Vigano, the former Vatican ambassador to the United States, angered some church officials in 2015 by arranging a meeting at the Vatican’s embassy in Washington between the Pope and Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk who refused to sign same-sex marriage certificates. During his trip to the United States, the Pope had tried to stay above the country’s culture wars. Vigano foisted Francis right into the fray. The Vatican, which tried to distance the Pope from Davis, was displeased. Two years later, Francis quietly accepted Vigano’s resignation. On Sunday, Vigano struck back. In an 11-page “testimony” released to conservative Catholic media, Vigano accused Francis of ignoring his warnings about Archbishop Theodore McCarrick, who led the Archdiocese of Washington from 2000-2006. Under Francis’ orders, McCarrick resigned from the College of Cardinals last month after accusations that he molested an altar boy and seminarians. But Vigano said the Pope earlier had lifted restrictions on McCarrick put in place by Pope Benedict XVI, who resigned in 2015. “In this extremely dramatic moment for the universal Church,” Vigano wrote, “he must acknowledge his mistakes and, in keeping with the proclaimed principle of zero tolerance, Pope Francis must be the first to set a good example for cardinals and bishops who covered up McCarrick’s abuses and resign along with all of them.” Vigano’s accusations come as Francis and his church are trying to contain a quickly escalating sexual abuse crisis that has spread from Australia to Pennsylvania. In Ireland, a country devastated by its own clergy abuse scandals, the Pope repeatedly apologized last weekend for the sins and crimes of church leaders, lamenting that “some members of the hierarchy didn’t own up to these painful situations and kept silent.” On the plane ride home, the Pope himself kept silent about Vigano’s accusations. “I will not say a single word about this,” he said. “I believe the statement speaks for itself. And you have the sufficient journalistic ability to make your conclusions. It’s an act of trust.” While journalists dig for the truth, and the Pope keeps silent, Vigano’s letter has emerged as a sort of Rorschach test for Catholics: Many conservative Catholics say the Pope must go. Liberal Catholics accuse the archbishop of launching a coup d’etat against his boss. “This is a coup operation against Pope Francis,” said Massimo Faggioli, a professor of Catholic history and theology at Villanova University in Pennsylvania. “It is a stunning convergence between the personal agenda of Vigano and the theological agenda of those who do not like Pope Francis.” Turning the tables on Vigano, the Archdiocese of Washington suggested his tenure in the United States should itself be investigated. A 2014 memo shows that Vigano himself demanded that evidence be destroyed in an attempt to end an investigation against a former archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis, according to CNN Vatican analyst John Allen. But the Bishop of Phoenix, the Most Rev. Thomas J. Olmsted, issued a statement defending Vigano, whom he said he has known since 1979. “Although I have no knowledge of the information that he reveals in his written testimony of August 22, 2018, so I cannot personally verify its truthfulness, I have always known and respected him as a man of truthfulness, faith and integrity,” Olmsted wrote. A ‘hit list’ Even before he tussled with Francis, Vigano was adept at courting controversy. In 2011, when he ran the Vatican City State, the Italian churchman clashed with his superiors, accusing Vatican officials of corruption. The charges became enmeshed in the Vatileaks scandal, when former Pope Benedict’s butler leaked documents detailing the infighting. “Vigano presented himself as a whistle blower,” said John Thavis, who was the Rome bureau chief for Catholic News Service at the time. “But he also had a persecution complex. He saw conspiracy theories all around him.” Thavis said Benedict didn’t seem impressed by Vigano’s views. “He sent him 4,000 miles away, to the United States.” Vigano was appointed the Vatican’s US ambassador in October 2011. For the most part, he kept a low profile, though some accused the archbishop of breaking with church protocol by appearing at an anti-gay marriage rally at the Supreme Court. (Typically, Vatican ambassadors – known as nuncios – do not publicly involve themselves in another country’s internal political debates.) Besides representing the Pope, nuncios typically advise popes on whom to appoint as bishops. In his letter Sunday, Vigano seemed bitter that Francis had relied on other Vatican officials for recommendations, saying that “the nunciature in Washington was now out of the picture in the appointment of bishops.” Instead, Vigano said, the appointment of several bishops to top posts in Chicago and New Jersey were “orchestrated” by McCarrick and his successor in Washington, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, as well as Cardinal Oscar Maradiaga, a Honduran who is one of the Pope’s closest advisers. More salaciously, Vigano said the Catholic Church is plagued by “homosexual networks” that “act under the concealment of secrecy and lies with the power of octopus tentacles, and strangle innocent victims and priestly vocations, and are strangling the entire Church.” Those “networks,” Vigano said, were complicit in a “conspiracy of silence” that allowed McCarrick’s and others’ alleged abuses to continue.<doc-sep>
Pope Francis has long faced criticism from traditionalists — a group that includes academics as well as cardinals — who say the church is too willingly following the whims of the anything-goes modern age. Much of the dissent has remained within the Vatican’s walls, as Francis’ opponents worked to stonewall reforms. A few high-ranking church leaders have questioned him publicly about his teachings. But the simmering opposition has suddenly exploded across the Catholic world, with a former Vatican ambassador accusing the pope of covering up sexual abuse — and demanding that Francis step down. The accusations came in a 7,000-word letter written by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò that could be viewed as an act of courage or unprecedented defiance. Either way, it sheds light on the opposition movement, and particularly its insistence that homosexuality within the church — and Francis’ inability to keep it at bay — is to blame for the sexual abuse crisis. Who is Carlo Maria Vigano, the man accusing Pope Francis of covering up sex abuse? » Defenders of the pope note that the letter was published at perhaps the most challenging point of Francis’ papacy, when abuse scandals in the United States, Chile, Australia and elsewhere are embroiling members of the church hierarchy. “We are a step away from schism,” said Michael Sean Winters, a columnist for the National Catholic Reporter. “I think there is a perception among the pope’s critics that there is vulnerability here — on the part of the pope and in the Vatican generally.” The document alleges that Francis, as well as predecessor Pope Benedict XVI, had known for years about abuse allegations against Theodore McCarrick, who last month became the first cardinal in nearly a century to resign. Francis, asked about the accusations on Sunday, did not directly respond to them, saying that the document “speaks for itself.” Viganò, a 77-year-old who is two years into retirement, is described by acquaintances as shy and quiet, but he has a history of advocating for right-wing causes. During the pope’s U.S. visit in 2015, he orchestrated a meeting between Francis and a conservative county clerk who defied a federal order to issue same-sex marriage licenses. In Italy this year, he spoke briefly at a gathering of dissenters that included Cardinal Raymond Burke, perhaps the most prominent anti-Francis figure. “All of the traditionalist outlets have given Viganò's letter a great echo, because that was the voice that they were waiting for,” said Roberto de Mattei, president of the conservative Lepanto Foundation and a critic of Francis. “At last a bishop has spoken. This explains the consensus from the world of critics. Viganò was not a leader [of the group]. But he joined critical voices that already existed.” Francis has used more inclusive messages about gays and divorced Catholics at a time when the religion is losing its hold across the Western world. But some conservatives feel that Francis — who has made no concrete changes to church teaching on homosexuality or the role of women in the church — risks undoing the credibility of a religion that is based on immutable ideas and principles. In the letter, Viganò goes into detail about years of failures to act within the Vatican bureaucracy, and he describes “dismay and sadness over the enormity of what is happening.” He mentions “homosexual networks” within the church and quotes an academic who cites such networks as a core reason for clergy abuse. “The seriousness of homosexual behavior must be denounced,” Viganò wrote. Read a translation of the 11-page letter by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano » With his letter, Viganò became the torchbearer for the argument, shared among a group of Catholic conservatives, that sexual abuse stems from an overabundance of priests with homosexual feelings. They charge that Francis, who describes abuse in terms of power and clerical narcissism, fundamentally misunderstands the issue, jeopardizing the church’s ability to address the scandals. In an interview published Monday by the conservative Italian newspaper La Verità, Burke said that “homosexual culture” had found “roots inside the church and can be connected to the drama of abuses perpetrated on adolescents and young adults.” That view has little hold in the mainstream and has been roundly dismissed by researchers and other outsiders, who say that sexual abuse results from a complicated combination of factors including church secrecy, the training and sexual development of young priests, and the profound power gap between clergy and young parishioners.