Pope Knew Of NJ Priest's Sexual Abuse Of Boys, Archbishop Says

NORTH JERSEY, NJ — Pope Francis was complicit in covering up sexual abuse of seminarians by Theodore McCarrick, a former New Jersey priest and cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, according to a letter by a former top Vatican diplomat.

Francis knew about the abuses years before they became public and did not punish McCarrick, but instead gave him the power to help select powerful American bishops, retired Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano said in his letter, dated Wednesday.

"He must honestly state when he first learned about the [alleged] crimes committed by McCarrick, who abused his authority with seminarians and priests," Vigano stated in the letter. "The Pope learned about it from me on June 23, 2013 and continued to cover for him." (Read the letter here.)

Vigano released the letter in the middle of Francis' trip to Ireland, where he asked for "forgiveness" while apologizing for several new clerical sex abuse scandals, CBS News reported.

Francis did not deny there was any truth to the letter, but did not address the issue directly at a news conference Sunday while returning home from visiting Ireland, telling a reporter they should "read the document carefully and judge it" for themselves, The New York Times reported.

Vigano claims Francis' predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, sanctioned McCarrick, but no public record of such a sanction exists, according to the Times.

McCarrick, 88, resigned from the Roman Catholic Church's College of Cardinals earlier this summer amid a torrent of sex abuse allegations by seminarians. Francis directed McCarrick to observe a "life of prayer and penance until the accusations made against him are examined in a regular canonical trial," a report by The Holy See's Vatican News service stated.

A former Tenafly man, known only by his first name, James, recalled the abuse he endured that started when he was 11 and McCarrick was 39, The New York Times and NorthJersey.com reported earlier this month. (See related: Bergen Man Alleges Ex-Priest Sexually Abused Him For 20 Years)

"He had chosen me to be his special boy," James told the Times. "If I go back to my family, they tell me that it's good for you to be with him. And if you go to try to tell somebody, they'll say 'I think you are mistaken.'"

McCarrick left the Newark Archdiocese to become Bishop of Metuchen in 1981. James said he would occasionally stay overnight with the then-bishop in Metuchen in the rectory at St. Francis Cathedral when he was a young adult. (See related: McCarrick Abused Young Man At Metuchen Church: Report)

The details of the alleged abuse include McCarrick giving James alcohol and sleeping naked with him, NorthJersey.com reported.

In July, a group of priests told the New York Times McCarrick would touch them inappropriately during overnight trips to a beach house owned by the diocese. In that same report, McCarrick was accused of sexually assaulting an underage boy while working in New York.

The McCarrick scandal is the latest sex abuse scandal for the Roman Catholic church in recent weeks. Another involves a 900-page grand jury report released in Pennsylvania earlier this month. That report details the alleged abuse of more than 1,000 child victims by 300 "predator" priests in six of Pennsylvania's eight dioceses.

With reporting by Kara Seymour and Katie Kausch, Patch staff

Email: daniel.hubbard@patch.com

Photo: Cardinal Archbishop emeritus Theodore McCarrick, center, greets Pope Francis, left, in 2015 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Jonathan Newton-Pool/Getty Images)