Pope Francis responded for the first time to an accusation that has dogged his pontificate since last year, denying that he knew about former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s history of sexual misconduct before it was revealed by a church investigation. Former papal nuncio to America, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, has said that he informed the pope of Mr. McCarrick’s history twice in 2013, telling the pope that his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI had placed the then-cardinal under restrictions to punish him for the [1]misconduct. [1]