IT WAS 5am last Sunday morning when news first started filtering through to the Holy See press corps in Ireland that the former papal ambassador to the United States had released his explosive “testimony” accusing Pope Francis of covering up abuse.

While running through wind and rain into an airport hanger at Knock airport journalists started to digest the news that Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò claims he had told Pope Francis in 2013 of allegations of sexual misconduct by Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.