St. Peter's Square with obelisk in Rome is part of the territory of the Vatican City. (Photo by Annette Riedl/picture alliance via Getty Images) ROME (AP) - A Vatican investigation into ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick has found that a series of bishops, cardinals and popes downplayed or dismissed reports that he slept with seminarians, and determined that Pope Francis merely continued his predecessors’ naive handling of the predator until a former altar boy alleged abuse.The Vatican took the extraordinary step Tuesday of publishing its two-year, 400-plus-page internal investigation into the American prelate's rise and fall in a bid to restore credibility to the U.S.