“If the church shows itself to be incapable of responding with all its heart...all our other activities of evangelization will feel it.”

Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput is asking Pope Francis to call off the Synod of Bishops on young people this October to focus instead on the life of the bishops.

He said the Gospel story helps us “to reflect how to act in daily life, when there are misunderstandings” and “to understand how the father of lies, the accuser, the devil, acts to destroy the unity of a family, of a people.”

The statement contradicts Archbishop Viganò’s account of his meeting with the pope, in which he said Francis had never reproached him for organizing the meeting with Ms. Davis.

Archbishop Vigano now says Pope Benedict made the sanctions private, perhaps “due to the fact that [Archbishop McCarrick] was already retired, maybe due to the fact that [Pope Benedict] was thinking he was ready to obey.”

A Vatican source said: “The archbishop seems to have declared open war on Pope Francis and the Vatican.”