“The fact that Pope Francis repeatedly dispatched the highly disgraced and compromised Cardinal McCarrick as an ad hoc diplomat to China to negotiate terms on behalf of the Holy See raises serious concerns about papal judgment and the integrity of the Vatican’s China Agreement. According to Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, Pope Francis was told that McCarrick was a notorious sexual predator who preyed on seminarians and that the Vatican had an extensive dossier on McCarrick’s personal corruption. Nevertheless, Francis trusted McCarrick to represent the Holy See in highly sensitive and complex negotiations.”
https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2019/06/04/yore-vatican-whistleblower-disgraced-cardinal-mccarrick-served-as-envoy-for-disastrous-vatican-china-deal/
“In January 2015, Pope Francis appointed Cardinal Coccopalmerio as head of a review board for appeals from clergy found guilty of sexual abuse of minors. In August 2016, the pope named Archbishop Paglia President of the Pontifical Academy for Life and Grand Chancellor of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family.
Many of the pope’s allegedly mistaken appointments were made on the basis of McCarrick’s recommendations, Viganò asserted.
“He followed the advice of someone he knew well to be a pervert, thus multiplying exponentially with his supreme authority the evil done by McCarrick. And how many other evil pastors is Francis still continuing to prop up in their active destruction of the Church!” he said.”
“We are in a truly dark moment for the universal Church,” Viganò told The Washington Post. “The Supreme Pontiff is now blatantly lying to the whole world to cover up his wicked deeds!”
https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/vigano-doubles-down-on-pope-francis-lying
The change is not about the death penalty, per se. it is about much more relevant perennial teachings.
“These suppositions are about much more than the death penalty. They strike at the heart of the very teaching authority of the Church, and they do so by means of a Trojan horse issue that nobody is particularly interested in hitching his wagon to. After all, who wants to be seen as a big defender of killing people, criminals or not? So people stand aside and let the attacks on the Magisterium continue.
So did 194 American bishops just do their best impression of the episcopal situation during Arianism? It sure looks that way.”