Pope Francis on Wednesday promised to “eradicate” sexual abuse within the Roman Catholic Church following the release of two reports painting a different picture of Vatican response to sexual abuse in the church.

“I renew my closeness to the victims of every abuse and the commitment of the church to eradicate this evil,” Francis said, referring to the “painful case of former Cardinal McCarrick.”

The Vatican report detailing ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick‘s decades of abuse and cover-up detailed the long history of abuse and McCarrich’s evasion of punishment as he rose to become one of the most powerful figures in the US Church.

The National Catholic Register reports:

The strength of the Report lies not only in its completeness but also in the overview it provides. From this overview, a few key points emerge that are necessary to consider. The first point concerns the mistakes that were made; these have already led to the adoption of new regulations within the Church, to help avoid history repeating itself. A second element is that, until 2017, there had been no specific accusations regarding the sexual abuse of minors committed by McCarrick. It is true that in the 1990s several anonymous letters alluding to minor abuse had been received by cardinals and in the nunciature in Washington, but without providing any details, names or circumstances: these letters were regrettably considered to be not credible because of the lack of concrete elements. The first specific accusation involving a minor was, in fact, that which emerged three years ago, which led to the immediate opening of a canonical process that concluded with the two decisions taken by Pope Francis – the first of which took away the red hat from the Cardinal emeritus and the second that dismissed him from the clerical state. Those who came forward to testify against McCarrick as the canonical process unfolded are to be commended for having allowed their truth to be known and should be thanked for having done so while overcoming the pain of remembering all that they have been through. 

The report then explains Pope Francis’s reaction:

When Pope Francis was elected, McCarrick was already over eighty years old and was, therefore, excluded from the conclave. His customary travels underwent no change, and the new Pope was not given documents or testimony to make him aware of the seriousness of the accusations, involving adults, against the former Archbishop of Washington. What was communicated to Pope Francis was that there had been allegations and “rumors related to immoral conduct with adults” prior to McCarrick’s appointment to Washington. Since, in his view, the accusations had been investigated and had been rejected by Pope John Paul II, and well-aware that McCarrick had remained active during Pope Benedict XVI’s pontificate, Pope Francis did not think it was necessary to modify “the course adopted by his predecessors”. It is, therefore, not true that he annulled or weakened the sanctions or restrictions placed on the Archbishop emeritus. Everything changed, as already mentioned, when the first accusation of sexual abuse of a minor emerged. The response was immediate. A rapid canonical process concluded with the serious and unprecedented measure of dismissal from the clerical state of a former Cardinal. 

This basically pins responsibility of McCarrick on JPII and absolves Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis of any wrongdoing.

However, just before the release of the McCarrick report the United Kingdom’s Independent Inquiry Into Child Sexual Abuse revealed a different side to the story.

The IICSA states:

Despite efforts by the Inquiry, very limited information was forthcoming. Much of the information that was provided was already in the public domain. After several months of correspondence, the Holy See belatedly confirmed it would not provide a witness statement. This response appears to be at odds with the May 2019 Papal pronouncements from Rome in which Pope Francis asserted that there needed to be “concrete and effective actions that involve everyone in the Church” regarding its approach to child sexual abuse.18 The Holy See’s limited response on this matter manifestly did not demonstrate a commitment to taking action. Their lack of cooperation passes understanding.

Abuse lawyer Richard Scorer replied that “If you believe the McCarrick report, Pope Francis is trying to tackle clerical sex abuse. But the #IICSA report today says the exact opposite – it condemns the Vatican for refusing to cooperate.”