VATICAN CITY — It was not the warmest of Vatican welcomes.

Amid a spiraling sexual abuse crisis that has threatened the pontificate of Pope Francis, America’s top Roman Catholic prelates met with the pontiff on Thursday. They were seeking a robust investigation into how Vatican officials permitted one of America’s top bishops, former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, to climb the hierarchy despite apparently knowing of allegations of his sexual misconduct.

But before the Americans could enter the pope’s private office, the church revealed that an investigation had in fact begun — just perhaps not the one they were expecting.

While a Vatican statement announcing the noon meeting began by listing the American delegation, including the secretary general of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Msgr. Brian Bransfield, it concluded with the revelation that Francis had accepted the resignation of the monsignor’s cousin, Bishop Michael J. Bransfield of West Virginia.

The pope, the statement said, has named a temporary administrator for the Wheeling-Charleston Diocese, Archbishop William E. Lori. Archbishop Lori promptly declared in his own statement that Francis had instructed him “to conduct an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment of adults against Bishop Bransfield.”