Pope Francis spent the weekend in Ireland, the first visit by a pope there in nearly 40 years.

His mission – to reconnect with the country’s 3.7 million Catholics, and seek forgiveness for members of the Church’s leadership who “kept quiet” about clerical child sex abuse. But on Sunday, the Church was rocked by a new allegation. Carlo Maria Viganò, the former top Vatican diplomat in the United States, and a staunch critic of the pope, claimed in a letter that Pope Francis, himself, joined top Vatican officials in covering up the abuses. He called on the pope to resign.

CGTN’s Jim Spellman has more on a scandal that’s gone on for more than three decades.

 Follow Jim Spellman on Twitter @jimspellmanTV

To discuss:

• Becky Ianni was abused when she was eight years old, and now heads a regional chapter of SNAP — the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
• Jason Miller is the director of Campaigns and Development for the Franciscan Action Network.
• Raymond Flynn served as U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican. 
• Marie Collins was abused by a priest at the age of 13. She would later resign in protest from Pope Francis’s Commission for the Protection of Minors.

For more:

https://twitter.com/TrojanManifesto/status/1034066763162370053

A former Vatican ambassador to the U.S. alleges that top Catholic Church officials, including Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, were long aware of sexual misconduct allegations against former D.C. archbishop Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. https://t.co/mKBXueFTo1

— NPR (@NPR) August 27, 2018

The Latest: Pope Francis declines to confirm or deny claims by the Vatican's retired U.S. ambassador that he briefed the pope in 2013 about sexual misconduct allegations against disgraced ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. https://t.co/pNV1nBnHkO

— The Associated Press (@AP) August 26, 2018

Pope Francis's record on the Catholic Church's sex-abuse crisis has long been criticized as inadequate by activists https://t.co/tSJPKqqyl0

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) August 27, 2018