Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago says the claims made by Archbishop Vigano are a “rabbit hole.”
In a bizarre interview with a Chicago NBC affiliate, Cardinal Blaise Cupich, head of the Archdiocese of Chicago, suggested recent claims made by a former apostolic nuncio — the Vatican’s envoy to the United States — that Pope Francis not only disregarded sexual abuse allegations against Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, but promoted McCarrick and sought his counsel, were going down a “rabbit hole.”
The Pope, Cupich told NBC, has more important things to attend to than sex abuse scandals, like climate change and immigration.
“The Pope has a bigger agenda,” Cardinal Cupich said. “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.”The so-called “rabbit hole” is a serious one: Pope Francis is accused of ignoring evidence that McCarrick abused seminarians, instead rescinding an order from Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI that McCarrick be stripped of duties and bound at home, to live a life of “prayer and penance.” The report also suggests that Pope Francis is beholden to a network of conspirators, hiding and protecting a number of abusers in the Church’s hierarchy.