Ahead of the Vatican’s summit on sexual abuse, two prominent Cardinals have linked the church’s history of abuse with homosexuality in a joint statement.

The claim was penned by Cardinal Raymond Burke from the US, and Walter Brandmüller from Germany. Much of the letter aligns the abuse scandal with ‘clericalism’, a term that denotes the ways in which members of the clergy use their power to protect one another.

The statement reads:

“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 continued:

“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.”

In the past, Brandmüller – who holds one of the most senior positions in the church – blamed the church’s history of sexual abuse on the growing influence of “propaganda phrases of the homosexual lobby”. He then claimed that the alleged link between homosexuality and paedophilia is “statistically proven”.

The statement from the two cardinals contradicts a statement made by Cardinal Cupich earlier this week, in which he said that homosexuality is not a cause of sexual abuse in the institution.

Cupich said that, while it is important to recognise the fact that a high percentage of sex abuse involves “male on male sex abuse”, “homosexuality itself is not a cause, it is a matter of opportunity and also a matter of poor training on the part of people”.

The Vatican’s first summit on sexual abuse will take place this week.