The Vatican says the head of the Catholic church worldwide and heads of the American Catholic Church will meet on Thursday, over a high profile accusation that the pope concealed sexual abuse claims against an American cardinal.
Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, the president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, will be at the meeting after he said last month that he was keen to meet with the pope after the scandal.
According to Vatican spokesman Greg Burke, apart from two other conference officials who will be in attendance, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, head of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors will also be at the meeting.
Former Vatican envoy to Washington, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano ignited a firestorm in August 2018, when he alleged that Pope Francis had for five years, ignored abuse claims against notable US cardinal, Theodore McCarrick, and called on the pope to step down.
The Pope is yet to respond to the envoy’s allegations.
The Vatican did not give details of the meeting’s agenda, however, DiNardo said late August, that the claims made by Vigano require conclusive responses that are evidence-based.
The scandal has revealed a division in the Church between some ultra-conservative Catholics and a pope they perceive as a perilous-progressive who is more attentive to social issues than traditional Church affairs.
This follows the US report on child sex abuse which accused more than 300 priests of being predators for molesting at least 1,000 children over seventy years in the state of Pennsylvania.
According to O’Malley, efforts against child abuse must be the Church’s priority, or else all of their evangelization, works of mercy, education, would suffer.
Image: Peregrinations
