Gregory: Report is ‘tragic chronicle’ of ‘devious’ churchman, church failures (Source cruxnow.com)

 Cardinal-designate Wilton D. Gregory of Washington said the Vatican’s report on former cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick is a “tragic chronicle” about that churchman’s “unconscionable human violation.”

It also details, he said, church leaders’ “failures of competence, communications and culture.”

In a Nov. 16 statement issued as the nation’s Catholic bishops gathered for their annual fall meeting — held online this year due to the coronavirus pandemic — Gregory said he felt “deep sorrow” for those victimized by McCarrick. They “should have been able to rely on the ministers of Christ’s church to protect and respect them,” he said. He said the report, issued Nov. 10, “demands to be viewed through the eyes of the survivors and their loved ones.” “As has happened too often in recent history, it revealed to me and to you dark corners of our church of which I am deeply ashamed and profoundly angry — again, ” Gregory said.