ROME 20 Feb (ANA) - Two prominent Roman Catholic Church cardinals have urged an end of what they call "the plague of the homosexual agenda", telling bishops to break their complicity over cases of sexual abuse.

 

In an open letter, Cardinals Burke and Brandmüller say the Church has wrongly blamed the abuse of power by clergy as the main cause of the scandals.

 

Instead, they say the cases involve priests who have "gone away from the truth of the Gospel".

 

They also openly criticise the Pope.

 

Stories of sexual abuse have emerged across the world and the Church has been accused of covering up crimes committed by priests.

 

Their letter comes on the eve of an extraordinary summit of bishops in Rome called by Pope Francis as an effort to deal with the scandals rocking the Church.

 

Cardinals Raymond Burke, from the US, and Walter Brandmüller, from Germany, reject that the cases of abuse are a result of "clericalism" - a group of men abusing their power, and protecting each other.

 

The cardinals belong to the traditionalist wing of the Church. In the Catholic hierarchy, cardinals are second in importance only to the pontiff, and there are currently 223 of them.

 

"The plague of the homosexual agenda has been spread within the Church, promoted by organized networks and protected by a climate of complicity and a conspiracy of silence," they said.

 

"Sexual abuse is blamed on clericalism. But the first and primary fault of the clergy does not rest in the abuse of power but in having gone away from the truth of the Gospel.

 

"The even public denial, by words and by acts, of the divine and natural law, is at the root of the evil that corrupts certain circles in the Church."

 

The cardinals accuse the Pope of failing to answer questions related to whether the Church should allow divorced and remarried Catholics to receive Holy Communion - they are currently barred.

 

They were posed to him in 2016 by four cardinals, including Burke and Brandmüller.

 

The issue, completely unrelated to Thursday's summit, has caused controversy in the Church, prompting many clerics to question the Pope's leadership.

 

Its inclusion in this letter, and the challenge to the Pope's authority, shows that clerics who are unhappy with Pope Francis are growing more confident, observers say.

 

The summit is to be attended by the heads of all national bishops' conferences from more than 130 countries.(ANA)

FA/ANA/20 February 2019--------