An Italian journalist who says he helped a former Vatican diplomat pen bombshell allegations of sex abuse cover-ups against Pope Francis has said he persuaded the archbishop to go public after recent revelations in Pennsylvania.
Marco Tosatti said he helped Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano write and edit his 11-page testimony, saying the two sat side-by-side at a wooden table in the reporter’s living room for three hours on August 22.
Mr Tosatti said Archbishop Vigano, a previous acquaintance, had called him a few weeks ago asking for a meeting.
The senior cleric’s allegations have thrown Francis’ five-year papacy into crisis.
A recent US grand jury report found that 300 priests had abused more than 1,000 children over 70 years in six dioceses in Pennsylvania.
The scandal has led to calls for heads to roll and for a full Vatican investigation into who knew what and when about the former archbishop of Washington, Theodore McCarrick.
