Nearly a year later, Pope Francis denied claims made by a former apostolic nuncio to the United States who accused him and other church officials of failing to act on accusations of abuse of conscience and power by former Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick.
"I knew nothing, obviously, of McCarrick. Nothing, nothing. I said several times that I didn't know, that I had no idea," the Pope said in an interview with Mexican journalist Valentina Alazraki published by Vatican News May 28. "You know that I didn't know anything about McCarrick; otherwise, I would not have stayed quiet."
