Some sexual abuse victims and journalists seem to have heeded the call, demanding the documents outside the Vatican embassy in Washington, D.C.

Viganò is the author of an extraordinary 11-page letter that sent shockwaves throughout Christiandom this week.

In the letter, the former apostolic nuncio to the United States accused several senior prelates of covering up allegations of McCarrick's sexual abuse for more than a decade. He also claimed Pope Francis knew about sanctions imposed by Pope Benedict XVI on then-Cardinal McCarrick (which forbade him from traveling and speaking in public) and chose not only to repeal them, but to make McCarrick a "kingmaker" for appointments in the Curia and the United States. Viganò further claimed that the disgraced cardinal became the pope's most trusted advisor in the Vatican for relations with the Obama administration.