I think that explains a lot, especially in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s. But it’s getting late in the game for that.
Maybe it lets John Paul II off the hook. A little. Benedict seems to have taken action, though weak. But it leaves bergoglio out in the cold. By 2013, we were all hyper-sensitized to this stuff. As Bishop Lopes of the Personal Ordinariate in Texas has written publicly, “We ALL knew.” Everyone in the hierarchy from seminarians to the pope, knew mccarrick was a homosexual. And even though they knew he was systematically, continuously violating his vows, they did and said nothing. Even though he was having sex with seminarians (what a power differential), they all looked the other way.
And now we know that the Vatican knew specifics as early as 2000.
In some ways analogous to a certain President facing a certain seetheing, alligator-infested Deep State.