Pope Francis will be meeting the bishops and cardinals from the United States on Thursday to discuss the number of sexual abuse allegations fired upon the Catholic Church in the US and all over the world, Vatican officials confirmed on Tuesday.
According to CNN, the pontiff will meet up with Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, the head of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Cardinal Sean O'Malley, one of the pope's advisers regarding the clergy sex abuse issue.
Aside from the two top clergy officials, the meeting, which will be held in the Vatican, will also see the participation of Archbishop Jose Gomez, the VP of US Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Monsignor Brian Bransfield, the conference's secretary.
August when Cardinal DiNardo requested an audience with the Papal Seat, The Week reported. As stipulated by the news outlet, DiNardo's request has something to do with Washington, D.C. Archbishop Theodore McCarrick and the accusations concerning his alleged sexual misconducts. McCarrick reportedly left his post in July following the sexual abuse case of a teenager and the surmounting charges of him abusing several numbers of seminarians.
McCarrick has since denied the accusations regarding the altar boy and has yet to respond to the ones about the seminarians.
The Voice of America added that the other agenda of the meeting is for the Holy See to discuss with the American Catholic leaders the demands of Vatican's former ambassador to the US, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano.
Previous reports from this site indicated an 11-page statement released by Vigano detailing what is supposed to be Pope Francis' cover-up on McCarrick's misbehaviors. The document further revealed the pontiff's disregard on the sanctions imposed by his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, to the accused.
Vigano said that Francis chose to lift the sanctions and went on to appoint McCarrick as one of his trusted counselors in the Papal Office.
Subsequent reports said that Vigano called for the resignation of the Jesuit priest from the Papacy to which Pope Francis simply replied with a silence and a prayer.
Taking Action
On the meeting, DiNardo is also expected to ask the pontiff an authorization from his office to conduct a full-fledged investigation on the sex abuse cases of McCarrick as well as the coverup allegations on several other high Church officials in America and Canada.
On the matter's legal side, it was previously reported that a number of attorney generals from different states in the US have issued civil subpoenas to every Catholic diocese in each of their respective jurisdictions. Leading the movement was Pennsylvania's Attorney General Josh Shapiro who called for the review of the cases involving the abuse of 1,000 children in his state.
