The controversy over an alleged high-level cover-up of Church sex abuse in America has revealed a deep rift among US bishops that reflects both the damage done by the pedophilia scandals rocking the Vatican -- and the country's current political divisiveness.
Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, who was the Vatican envoy in Washington between 2011 and 2016, sparked a firestorm when he claimed last week that Pope Francis ignored his warnings in 2013 about alleged abuse by then prominent US cardinal Theodore McCarrick.
In July, the pontiff accepted the resignation of McCarrick, now 88. He has been accused of "gravely immoral" behaviour with seminarians and priests.
Vigano's claims have raised speculation of a campaign against the pontiff by Church conservatives in the United States, which is home to the fourth largest Catholic population in the world, according to US government data.
"It is a time of turmoil for all of us," says Paul Elie, a senior fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs at Georgetown University, a Catholic university in the nation's capital.
In one camp, cardinals including progressive Joseph Tobin of Newark, Chicago's Blase Cupich and Robert McElroy of San Diego have rushed to the pontiff's defense, denouncing Vigano as a conservative "ideological warrior."
"People are now speaking for themselves much more than they were used to."
"It's part of the era of Trump that we are in -- nobody is holding back and saying this is not appropriate."
"But there is a group of people who see this as this great heresy... We really are experiencing the polarization in a way that mirrors what's happening in the larger culture."
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