VATICAN CITY — The Vatican communications office released only a partial transcript of Pope Francis’ comments about what he knew of disgraced ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, omitting his claim that he didn’t remember if he had been told in 2013 of McCarrick’s penchant for sleeping with seminarians.

The omission gave the impression that Francis flatly denied knowing anything about McCarrick, whereas the full comment makes clear he didn’t remember. That distinction is at the root of the scandal over the Vatican’s years-long cover-up of McCarrick.

The Vatican press office didn’t immediately provide an explanation Wednesday.

The full quote appeared Tuesday in the transcript of Francis’ Spanish-language interview with Mexico’s Televisa that was published by the Holy See’s news portal, Vatican News.

The partial quote appeared in what was advertised as the “integral” Italian translation.