POPE SILENT ON CLAIM HE IGNORED ABUSE

Pope silent on claim he ignored abuse

Pope Francis has refused to comment on a claim that he personally ignored sexual abuse allegations against a senior clergyman

Pope Francis has refused to comment on a claim that he personally ignored sexual abuse allegations against a senior clergyman (AFP Photo/Handout)

Vatican City (AFP) - Pope Francis has declined to comment on a claim that he ignored sexual abuse allegations against a senior clergyman amid speculation conservative elements in the Catholic hierarchy are using the issue to mount a "putsch" to remove the liberal pontiff.

Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, a former Vatican envoy to the United States, on Saturday said he had told Francis of the allegations against prominent US cardinal Theodore McCarrick in 2013.

But rather than punish McCarrick, who was forced to resign last month, Vigano said Francis had lifted sanctions imposed on him by his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI.

"Corruption has reached the very top of the Church's hierarchy," Vigano said in an eleven-page letter published in the National Catholic Register and several conservative US Catholic publications.

But the pope refused to address the allegation on Sunday.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/pope-hold-giant-mass-dublin-abuse-victims-rally-030337491.html