Former nunciature official: ‘Vigano said the truth’

Washington D.C., Aug 26, 2018 / 10:17 pm (CNA).- Monsignor Jean-François Lantheaume, the former first counsellor at the apostolic nunciature in Washington D.C., has said that the former nuncio, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, told “the truth” in his explosive statement released to the press on Aug. 25.

The 11-page document contains specific allegations that senior bishops and cardinals have been aware of the allegations of sexual abuse against Archbishop Theodore McCarrick for more than a decade. Archbishop Viganò also states states that, in either 2009 or 2010, Pope Benedict XVI imposed sanctions on McCarrick “similar to those now imposed upon him by Pope Francis” and that McCarrick was forbidden from travelling and speaking in public.

In his statement, Viganò says that these were communicated to McCarrick in a stormy meeting at the nunciature in Washington D.C. by then-nuncio Pietro Sambi. Viganò directly cites Msgr. Lantheaume as having told him about the encounter, following his arrival in D.C to replace Sambi as nuncio in 2011.

“Monsignor Jean-François Lantheaume, then first Counsellor of the Nunciature in Washington and Chargé d’Affaires ad interim after the unexpected death of Nuncio Sambi in Baltimore, told me when I arrived in Washington —  and he is ready to testify to it —  about a stormy conversation, lasting over an hour, that Nuncio Sambi had with Cardinal McCarrick whom he had summoned to the  Nunciature. Monsignor Lantheaume told me that ‘the Nuncio’s voice could be heard all the way out in the corridor.’”

CNA contacted Msgr. Lantheaume and requested an interview with him to discuss the account attributed to him by Archbishop Viganò. Lantheaume, who has now left the Vatican diplomatic corps and serves in priestly ministry in France, declined to give an interview, and said he had no intentions of speaking further on the matter.

“Viganò said the truth. That’s all,” he wrote to CNA.

The full text of Viganò’s statement lists numerous senior curial cardinals, during the last three pontificates, as being aware of McCarrick’s alleged predatory behavior but either failing to act, or in some cases deliberately acting to cover-up McCarrick’s alleged crimes.

The former nuncio names three different Vatican Secretaries of State – Cardinals Angelo Sodano, Tarcissio Bertone, and Pietro Parolin – as having failed to curtail McCarrick’s behavior, or positively acting to support him.

“Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the current Secretary of State, was also complicit in covering up the misdeeds of McCarrick who had, after the election of Pope Francis, boasted openly of his travels and missions to various continents,” Viganò wrote.

Most controversially, Archbishop Viganò alleges that Pope Francis acted to lift the restrictions on McCarrick shortly after his election as pope, in 2013.

Viganò says that he met McCarrick in June 2013 and was told by the then-cardinal, “The pope received me yesterday, tomorrow I am going to China.” In a subsequent meeting with Francis, Viganò says he warned the pope about the long list of allegations against McCarrick but that the Holy Father did not respond.

Archbishop McCarrick is believed to still be residing within the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., under conditions of “prayer, penance, and seclusion” imposed by Pope Francis.

 


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4 Comments

  1. Vigano and Lantheaume are both telling the truth. Their allegations are statements of fact that they themselves know fully well that they could not make unless they were supported by documentary evidence in their files or those of the Nunciature in Washington or the Secretariat of State in Rome. Both of these men were longtime Vatican diplomats serving at the highest levels of the Secretariat of State and are nobody’s fools. Both are also fully cognizant that they are now risking calumny, detraction, and even physical violence by what they have disclosed.

  2. The Lone Ranger has arrived. Msgr Lantheaume. Those accusing Archbishop Viganò as motivated by conservative dissent rather than truth now must be reeling back. Personally as a simple priest I’m convinced all parish priests must now because of the underhanded implementation of the Pontiff’s New Paradigm Shift [The Holy Spirit does not engage in subterfuge and deception] without question and with absolute conviction address the truth regarding the permanence of moral doctrine and the revelation of Christ.

    • May I recommend that all orthodox Catholics start referring to the “New Paradigm Shift” as “The Anglican Paradigm”, even correcting in public those pushing the New Paradigm Shift (NPS). First of all, the NPS is just that–the old water-downed version of Christianity by doctrinally deficient Anglicans but rehashed and repackaged for Catholics. Secondly, properly reframing the NPS as something less than Catholic will help neutralize that movement for some of the audiences are trying to seduce.

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