A prominent cardinal is joining a chorus of bishops in calling for a full investigation into the Archbishop Viganò testimonies, which implicated several senior prelates and Pope Francis in the cover-up of former cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s sexual abuse of priests and seminarians.

In a Dec. 13 interview with the Italian daily Il Giornale, Cardinal Willem Jacobus Eijk, Archbishop of Utrecht, Netherlands, says “it is clear” that the allegations contained in the Viganò testimonies “should be thoroughly examined,” adding that “many bishops” have asked for such an investigation.

“It has to be fully clarified if the Church wants her credibility back,” he said.

In the wide-ranging interview, the Dutch Cardinal also discusses the importance of persevering in Catholic doctrine amid pressures to adopt a more Protestant-Anglican model. “The strength of the Catholic Church,” Eijk says, “is that her doctrine is valid for the whole world. Dialogue with the Protestants must not lead the Catholic Church herself to become Protestant.”

Eijk, 65, also offers his view on the inclusion of the “LGBT” acronym in the recent Youth Synod’s working document, and his thoughts on the expected move to ordain married men in the Latin Church with next year’s Amazonian Synod.

“To allow [married priests] temporarily is not a solution,” he insists. “Once it is decided, it becomes irrevocable,” and “with this, priestly celibacy, a splendid and fruitful centuries-old tradition of the Latin Church, would be lost.”

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