Archbishop Vigano now says Pope Benedict made the sanctions private, perhaps “due to the fact that [Archbishop McCarrick] was already retired, maybe due to the fact that [Pope Benedict] was thinking he was ready to obey.”

Pope Francis said that he trusted people to make their own judgment on Archbishop Viganò's letter and that parents of gay children should "dialogue, understand, make room for that son or daughter."

Pope Francis will meet survivors of sexual abuse during his trip to Ireland Aug. 25-26.

"We must never stand outside the church to judge her; we are the church. We all are responsible for the church, including when there are problems in the church."

While Mary was given a special grace, the pope said, the feast day should remind Catholics that the church professes faith in "the resurrection of the body" for all who are saved by Christ.

Beginning in the mid-1990s, the church in Ireland was rocked by a series of very public revelations about sexual abuse and, particularly, about how the abuse and allegations of it were mishandled by senior church leaders.

It is true that “sometimes we are the ones who betray the Gospel,” the pope said.

The "regular canonical trial" for an accused bishop, experts say, usually would be conducted by the apostolic tribunal of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Dealing with the reality of potential abuse and the history of clerical sexual abuse in the church is a process.

"I am struck by the work of reflection, discernment and the decisions you have made," the pope wrote in the letter dated Aug. 5 and posted on the website of the Chilean bishops' conference.