Pope Francis will meet with Church leaders from the United States on Thursday for talks on the clergy sexual abuse scandal.
The Vatican has confirmed that at midday, on the 13 September, Francis is to receive Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, President of the United States Bishops Conference, and Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the leader of the papal commission on child protection and the Archbishop of Boston.
Archbishop José Gomez, the vice-president of the bishops’ conference will also attend. Top of the agenda at the meeting inside the Vatican's apostolic palace will be the scandal involving a former American cardinal which now includes demands from a Vatican archbishop that the Pope should resign.
Cardinal DiNardo requested an audience with the Pope in a 16 August public letter after Archbishop Theodore McCarrick was credibly accused of abusing a minor along with numerous allegations that he sexually abused seminarians and priests.
The request also came in the wake of the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report which found that 301 priests had sexually abused in excess of 1,000 children over a 70-year period.
The cardinal explained that the US bishops’ executive committee had agreed a three-prong response to the crisis which included an investigation “into the questions surrounding” McCarrick, the opening of “new and confidential channels” for reporting complaints about bishops' misconduct and for more effective ways to resolve future complaints.
Nine days after Di Nardo's letter was released, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò released his explosive testimony alleging that the Pope was told about allegations that McCarrick had abused seminarians and that restrictions had been placed on the former Cardinal Archbishop of Washington by Benedict XVI.
Cardinal DiNardo has said the allegations by the former Papal Ambassador to the United States “deserve answers that are conclusive and based on evidence”.
He added: “without those answers, innocent men may be tainted by false accusation and the guilty may be left to repeat sins of the past.”
The cardinal wants the Holy See to conduct an apostolic visitation into the McCarrick abuse case, which could include how the ex-cardinal managed to rise up to such a prominent position in spite of allegations being levelled against him.
The Pope authorised Archbishop McCarrick’s removal from ministry earlier this summer along with his position as a cardinal.
The 88-year-old retired prelate, who is also facing a Church trial, has denied accusations that he abused a minor and has not responded to the allegations about the seminarians.