Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Retired U.S. Cardinal Bernard F. Law and Cardinal Agostino Cacciavillan, former apostolic nuncio to the United States, leave after Pope Francis' audience with members of the Roman Curia in Clementine Hall at the Vatican Dec. 22. (CNS photo/Paul Haring) See POPE-CURIA Dec. 22, 2014.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A former nuncio to the United States acknowledged hearing rumors about the sexual misconduct of Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick already in 1994.

Cardinal Agostino Cacciavillan, who served as pro-nuncio to the United States from 1990 to 1998, told Catholic News Service Oct. 29 that he received a phone call from a woman in the months preceding St. John Paul II's visit to the United States in 1995.

"I remember in 1994, during the preparation of the papal visit to New York, Newark and Baltimore," Cardinal Cacciavillan said, "I received a telephone call" at the Apostolic Nunciature in Washington, D.C.

According to the 93-year-old retired papal diplomat, the caller feared there would be a "media scandal if the pope goes to Newark," Archbishop McCarrick's diocese, because of "voices, voices (rumors) about McCarrick's behavior with seminarians."

"It was not a formal complaint, but the expression of a concern," he said.

Cardinal Cacciavillan said that he took the matter to the then-archbishop of New York, Cardinal John J. O'Connor, because he was "the closest bishop. No one better than the archbishop of New York would know what was happening in the Archdiocese of Newark."

Cardinal O'Connor carried out an "investigation, an inquiry," he said, and told the nuncio that "there was no obstacle to the visit of the pope to Newark."

Cardinal Cacciavillan described Cardinal O'Connor, who died in 2000, as a "very competent person," and the retired nuncio said he had no reason to doubt the reliability of Cardinal O'Connor's inquiry.

Asked why he thought the phone call warranted an inquiry, Cardinal Cacciavillan responded, "I thought it was something important."

Cardinal Cacciavillan told CNS that while he encountered Archbishop McCarrick frequently during the eight years he served as nuncio, he never spoke to Archbishop McCarrick about the rumors nor did he report the rumors to the Vatican.

In fact, he said, the first time he spoke to any Vatican official about the rumors was Oct. 7 during a visit with Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops. Earlier that day, the Canadian cardinal had released an open letter responding to allegations by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, another former nuncio, that Pope Francis had known for years about Archbishop McCarrick's behavior and had done nothing about it until accusations were made about him sexually abusing boys.

Asked why he thought the phone call warranted an inquiry, Cardinal Cacciavillan responded, "I thought it was something important."

Interviewed in his Vatican apartment, Cardinal Cacciavillan denied reports that he ordered then-Archbishop McCarrick to sell his beach house in Sea Girt, New Jersey, the house where he allegedly brought groups of seminarians and would have one share a bed with him. Archbishop McCarrick sold the house in 1997 while Cardinal Cacciavillan was still nuncio.

Cardinal Cacciavillan was not mentioned in the long statement Archbishop Vigano published in August alleging that complaints about Archbishop McCarrick were mishandled for years; the statement did, however, mention steps that Cardinal Cacciavillan's successors -- Archbishops Gabriel Montalvo and Pietro Sambi -- tried to take.

"The case of McCarrick came out especially after he was transferred to Washington" in late 2000 and after St. John Paul named him a cardinal in February 2001, Cardinal Cacciavillan said.

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
Henry George
5 years 4 months ago

I know that Seminarians live a very precarious life.
A Bishop, a Rector, a Vocation Director, a Professor, a Formation Director
can take actions that will lead to your leaving the Seminary, Diocesan Sponsorship
and perhaps the practical end to your journey to Priesthood.

Can America find out who was/were the Rectors at the Seminary when
McCarrick was on the prowl ?

Please find out why no one stood up to McCarrick and why the Vatican approved him
for higher and higher positions in the Church.

John Walton
5 years 4 months ago

-- the Nuncio would have been better served by placing a call to Kroll Associates. In the interim, he could have asked the cleaning crew, gardeners etc. around the seminary.

The latest from america

Jesuit Father Andriy Zelinskyy, coordinator of military chaplains for the Ukrainian Catholic Church, is pictured in a 2018 photo.
When reflecting on the life, death and resurrection of the Lord while living in a state of military invasion and active war, “everything becomes more authentic,” and “God ceases to be just a concept,” says Andriy Zelinskyy, S.J. “He really becomes a source of life and all hope for you and for
PreachMarch 17, 2024
One study showed Catholics donated the least amount of money of all denominations surveyed.
Kevin ClarkeMarch 15, 2024
Bishop Luis Manuel Alí Herrera and Teresa Morris Kettlekamp will lead the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.
Gerard O’ConnellMarch 15, 2024
The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that exemptions that allow religious organizations to avoid paying Wisconsin’s unemployment tax don’t apply to a Catholic charitable organization.