On 25 August 2018, days after Francis had issued an apology for abuses by clergy in the US.[479] Before his apology in Ireland,[2] former papal nuncio Carlo Maria Viganò released an 11-page letter in which he claimed that Francis decided to remove restrictions placed by Pope Benedict XVI against Cardinal Theodore Edgar McCarrick, a known sexual abuser,[480] promoting him as his trusted advisor. According to Viganò, Francis "knew from at least June 23, 2013 that McCarrick was a serial predator. He knew that he was a corrupt man, he covered for him to the bitter end."