Pope to meet US bishops over sex abuse scandal

The Pope will meet Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, with the church in the US facing allegations of sexual abuse on several fronts.

The two men are expected to discuss allegations that a former top American cardinal, Theodore McCarrick, sexually abused seminarians and an altar boy. McCarrick, who has denied the accusations about the altar boy and not responded to the allegations about the seminarians, resigned from his position in July.

The allegations, as well as an explosive letter from a former papal diplomat, have raised serious questions among senior church leaders about why McCarrick was allowed to rise through the church's ranks, as well as who knew about the accusations.

That all comes on top of a 900-page investigative report released last month by a grand jury in Pennsylvania that found that more than 300 priests had sexually abused more than 1,000 children in six dioceses since 1947, often while church leaders covered up the crimes.

In an August 16 public letter, DiNardo said the bishops' executive committee had three goals: opening an investigation "into the questions surrounding" McCarrick; opening "new and confidential channels" for reporting complaints about bishops' misconduct; and advocating for more effective ways to resolve future complaints.

Some of the steps DiNardo is seeking -- such as an "apostolic visitation," an investigation into McCarrick led by the Vatican -- require Vatican approval. DiNardo has said lay people should be involved in the investigation as well.

The US bishops next meet as a body in November in Baltimore, where they are expected to debate and vote on DiNardo's plans.

Pope calls unprecedented meeting of top officials over sexual abuse

The meeting comes a day after the Pope took the unprecedented step of summoning the church's top officials from across the world to the Vatican to discuss the sexual abuse crisis in February.

The Pope is also facing criticism from Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò who says the pontiff was made aware of alleged sexual abuse by Cardinal McCarrick as early as 2013, and subsequently failed to act.

An open letter published on Catholic Women's Forum, which calls on the Pope to respond to allegations by Viganò surrounding the sexual abuse scandal, has gained more than 44,000 signatures in just under two weeks.

In a further blow, a CNN Poll conducted by SSRS before the Pope called the February meeting, concluded that the pontiff's ratings have nosedived dramatically.

Close to half of Americans -- 48% -- say they have a favorable view of the Pope, down from two-thirds who said the same in January 2017 and 72% who said so in December 2013, a few months after he was first elevated to the position.

Specifically among US Catholics, his ratings have fallen from 83% favorability a year and a half ago to 63% now -- a 20-point drop.

Also on Wednesday, it was revealed that the German Catholic Church will admit to "at least" 3,766 cases of child sex abuse by the clergy between 1946 and 2014 in an upcoming report that leaked to local media outlets Die Zeit and Spiegel Online.

In a response to the report, Bishop Stephan Ackermann released a written statement to CNN saying the church was "dismayed and ashamed" by the findings.

CNN's Daniel Burke and Grace Sparks contributed to this report.

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