POPE: "I WON'T SAY A WORD ABOUT THIS."

   Pope Francis deflected questions from reporters about his alleged lifting of sanctions imposed on Cardinal Theodore McCarrick for sexual abuse, telling reporters Sunday to read the accusations and make their own assessment of their credibility.
  On the papal plane returning from Ireland Sunday night, a journalist asked the pope point blank whether allegations were true that the papal nuncio to the United States had explicitly informed him in 2013 of sexual abuse perpetrated by Cardinal McCarrick and subsequent sanctions imposed on him by Pope Benedict XVI, including restrictions on his travel and appearances in public.
   “I read that statement this morning,” he said, in reference to an 11-page affidavit by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the former papal nuncio to the United States, which claimed that the pope knew about McCarrick’s misdeeds and yet reinstated him to a position of influence within the Vatican.
   “I read it and sincerely I must tell you this, you and all of you who are interested, read the statement carefully and come to your own conclusion. I won’t say a word about this,” he said.