Pope Francis (reigned 2013–25) prayed for victims, urged bishops to reach out to them, and faced criticism for the Vatican’s slow punishment of known pedophiles. He also faced recommendations from the United Nations for mandatory reporting procedures. He made public apologies to survivors for the church’s history of abuse, including in Ireland and Canada.
In 2018 Francis ordered a thorough Vatican investigation into the abuse claims against Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who had served in several dioceses in the United States dating to the 1970s and as archbishop of Washington, D.C. from 2001 to 2006. In February 2019 the pope removed McCarrick from the priesthood. The Vatican’s investigation, known as the McCarrick Report, concluded that many high-ranking church officials who knew of the accusations, including Pope John Paul II (reigned 1978–2005), had not acted effectively.