Bishop Barron on the Vatican’s Recent Report on Theodore McCarrick

This is a link to a Word On Fire Youtube Video in which Bishop Robert Barron responds to Word On Fire Content Director Brandon Vogt’s questions on the recently published “Report on the Holy See’s institutional knowledge and decision-making process related to former Cardinal Theodore Edgar McCarrick (from 1930 to 2017).” Vogt says that the report is the result of a two-year investigation by the Vatican “revealing how the former Cardinal rose to the ranks of the Catholic hierarchy despite years of proven sexual abuse and multiple other improprieties.”

Bishop Barron begins his remarks saying that, on behalf of the Church he offers a “profound and heartfelt apology to those who are victims who were trying again and again to ring the alarm bell and were ignored, the proper steps not having been taken” by involved Church officials.  Barron expressed his “profound sadness for those who suffered, saying that what came to his mind as he read the document, was Harvey Weinstein because it is a similar situation:  someone who is in a powerful position in relation to people, and that McCarrick was, therefore, able to manipulate them.” Bishop Barron sadly acknowledges that over the course of history “the Church has done this many, many times.”

Click here to listen to the video interview in which Bishop Barron, among other things, talks about how the report addresses the role of the Vatican and of the Popes John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis, in the McCarrick case.

Click to access the full report including the statement of Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State.