DUBLIN (AP) The Vaticans retired ambassador to the United States accused senior Vatican officials of knowing as early as 2000 that the disgraced former archbishop of Washington, ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, regularly invited seminarians into his bed but was made a cardinal regardless.

The letter, an extraordinary jaccuse from a one-time Holy See diplomat, also accuses Pope Francis of being informed of McCarricks penchant for young seminarians in 2013 but of having rehabilitated him a claim of cover-up against the pope himself.

The National Catholic Register and another conservative site, LifeSiteNews, published the letter attributed to Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano on Sunday as the pope was wrapping up a two-day visit to Ireland dominated by the clerical sex abuse and cover-up scandal.