Immediately after, the Pope asked me in a deceitful way: “What is Cardinal McCarrick like?” I answered him with complete frankness and, if you want, with great naiveté: “Holy Father, I don’t know if you know Cardinal McCarrick, but if you ask the Congregation for Bishops there is a dossier this thick about him. He corrupted generations of seminarians and priests and Pope Benedict ordered him to withdraw to a life of prayer and penance.” The Pope did not make the slightest comment about those very grave words of mine and did not show any expression of surprise on his face, as if he had already known the matter for some time, and he immediately changed the subject......
from the testimony of former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States (2011-2016), Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò.
Pope Benedict told McCarrick to get out of that DC seminary he was living in, forbade him to say Mass in public or make appearances. Francis undid all that. In October of 2013, then Cardinal McCarrick told a "cute" story during a speech at Villanova University. He talked about his recovery from a heart attack in Rome and how he met with the pope after his release from the hospital. When he "piously" attributed the recovery to the Lord still wanting him to do more work on earth the pope jokingly replied, "Maybe the Devil did not have your accommodations ready."
I'm sure people in the audience chuckled at what they thought was the pope's teasing and the cardinal's marvelous self deprecating humor. One blogger seized on this comment and was hopeful that the pope was telling McCarrick that he was on to him and McCarrick was too arrogant to realize it. Others simply criticized the pope for joking about Hell. Now we know that it was much worse that what any of us thought. Archbishop Vigano says he told the pope on June 23, 2013 that Cardinal MCarrick was an evil man but by October, 2013, McCarrick was still riding high. I think in that "cute" speech he was actually mocking Vigano and everyone else who had complained about him.
Rorate Caeli's writers have the weird knack at times of being able to write like both teen aged girls with a delicious secret and a frosty old grande dame but let's give credit where it is due. Within a day or two of the habemus papam announcement Rorate was reporting that Cardinal Bergoglio was bad news. They were mocked, minimized (remember when Fr. Z. was telling us to stay calm and read Francis through Benedict?* ), or given the same silent treatment that Randy Engel got when she wrote Rite of Sodomy. I hope some people have apologized even privately for that.
Now as for the Church, some people are saying that they are leaving that this scandal proves that the gates of Hell have prevailed. Well now, Jesus Christ said that the gates of Hell would not prevail against His Church. Some people think the gates of Hell are pressing against the Church walls but that's not it at all. The Church is supposed to be attacking the gates of Hell. Some times we are blessed with popes like Gregory the Great, Peter, Pius V, and Pius X who went after Hell with battering rams and trebuchets and sometimes we get popes who timidly tap on the infernal gates and run back several steps and sometimes we get a pope who tries to slap a coat of paint on the gates and pretends they aren't there. Pope Francis is a bad pope. People from Argentina and around the world have been telling us this from day one. It's time to face it. We are in a great war. It is heartbreaking to realize that many of our generals, if not most of them have gone over to the other side and seeing so many of our officers fail in their duty throws us into confusion and despair but we only need one brave general to act with aggression and the pragmatic ones who have decided to keep their heads down and just wait for Francis to die may rouse themselves and follow. In the mean time pray for Archbishop Vigano. At 77, he's saddled up and he rode out. A cannonball of malice is coming his way.
*What in Sam Hill does that mean? I never got it.