Top Vatican cardinal says cover-up accusations against Pope a 'political fabrication'

Pope Francis blesses the crowd during a noon prayer at St Peter's Square. Photo / AP

In a combative letter, a highly-placed cardinal mounted the Vatican's first direct response to accusations that Pope Francis knew about and covered up the alleged sexual misconduct of a US prelate, describing those claims as a "political fabrication devoid of a real foundation."

The letter, written by Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, came six weeks after a former Vatican ambassador to the United States wrote a bombshell letter of his own, charging that much of the Vatican hierarchy, including Francis, had for years protected recently-resigned cardinal Theodore McCarrick.

Ouellet's letter is significant because it ends a period of overwhelming silence among the key Vatican officials with the standing to rebut or back up the claims of that former ambassador, Carlo Maria Viganò.

That silence has tested the patience of many Catholics, who remain divided over Vigano's credibility but say his claims have further wounded a church that is contending with multiple abuse-related crises.

Ouellet, the head of the Vatican's powerful bishops office, said it was "unbelievable and unlikely from every point of view" to accuse Francis of "having covered up with full knowledge of this alleged sexual predator".

Ouellet, who portrayed Viganò as bitter and disillusioned with his career within the Holy See, said he was in "open and scandalous rebellion," and Ouellet accused him of exploiting the broader clergy sex-abuse scandal in the US as a way to land "an undeserved and unheard of blow" on the Pope.

But pushing back against Viganò, Ouellet said the Vatican had attempted years ago to place some restrictions on McCarrick - an acknowledgment that matches somewhat, but not completely, with Viganò's version of events.

As Viganò describes it, the Vatican had ignored reports about McCarrick for years - until "2009 or 2010," when Pope Benedict XVI placed sanctions on the cardinal, forbidding him to travel, appear publicly or hold Mass. Viganò says he then told Francis in 2013, not long after he became pope, that McCarrick was a "serial predator." Francis nonetheless reportedly ignored those sanctions and made McCarrick a trusted adviser.

Viganò wrote that he learned of Benedict's sanctions against McCarrick in part from Ouellet.

But as Ouellet describes it in his letter, which was addressed to Viganò, the Vatican's measures against McCarrick did not reach the papal level.

At an unspecified time, Ouellet writes, McCarrick was "strongly invited not to travel, and not to appear publicly, so as not to provoke further rumours about him."

The measures could have been stronger, Ouellet said, had the Vatican been supplied with clear evidence of McCarrick's misconduct by its representatives - including Viganò - working in the United States.

"Presenting the measures taken against (McCarrick) as 'sanctions' decreed by Pope Benedict and annulled by Pope Francis is false," Ouellet wrote. "After re-examining the archives, I can see that there are no documents in this regard signed by one or the other pope."