The Vatican ambassador who accused Pope Francis of rehabilitating a disgraced ex-American cardinal has blamed “the scourge of homosexuality” for sex abuse by members of the clergy.

Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano said the Vatican was being hypocritical in refusing to acknowledge it.

The archbishop issued a third installment in the war of words over the cover-up of ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.

Vatican Pope
Pope Francis (Andrew Medichini/AP)

He was responding to a Vatican cardinal who had rebuked him and accused him of mounting a “blasphemous” political hit job against Francis with his claims.

The archbishop accurately noted that Cardinal Marc Ouellet actually confirmed the core of his allegations.

He had said that Mr McCarrick was placed under some form of restriction during Pope Benedict XVI’s papacy because of allegations he pressured seminarians to sleep with him.