Theodore McCarrick, Cardinal Defrocked Over Sex Abuse, Dies at 94
Theodore E. McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington and the highest American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church to be accused of sexually abusing minors and seminarians — a charge that stripped him of his ministry, his place in the College of Cardinals and his priesthood, reducing him to the status of a layman — has died. He was 94.
The accusations against Cardinal McCarrick, who had helped shape many of his church’s policies for responding to its sexual abuse crisis, were shocking but hardly incredible when they came to light in 2018, after a church investigation concluded that he had molested a teenage altar server in 1971 and 1972 while he was monsignor in New York City. Thousands of priests before him had faced charges of abuse, and the church had paid victims hundreds of millions in settlements. In 2012, Cardinal Bernard F. Law, the archbishop of Boston and America’s senior prelate, resigned amid revelations that he had protected pedophile priests for years.
Although Cardinal McCarrick promptly resigned his ministry “at the direction of Pope Francis,” church officials said, he contended that he was innocent, saying he had no recollection of the reported abuse.
Other sexual misconduct allegations against him soon emerged. Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin of Newark said that during a McCarrick ministry in Metuchen, N.J., in the 1980s, when Cardinal McCarrick was bishop of the diocese there, three adults accused him of improprieties that led to two financial settlements. And former priests said he had had sexual contact with dozens of New Jersey seminarians, who called him “Uncle Ted.”
An investigation by The New York Times in 2018 revealed that members of the church hierarchy had known for decades about accusations that Father McCarrick had preyed on men who aspired to the priesthood, sexually harassing and touching them.
How Cardinal McCarrick was able to avoid exposure for his crimes seemed to have been answered by a Washington Post investigation, showing that starting in 2001, he had sent checks totaling more than $600,000 to some 100 powerful Catholic clerics, including Vatican officials, some of them directly involved in assessing misconduct claims against him. The checks were drawn from a special charity account of the Archdiocese of Washington, where he began serving as archbishop in 2001.
In November 2020, the Vatican released a report detailing how the disgraced former prelate had risen through the church hierarchy despite longstanding allegations of sexual misconduct. The report, based on an investigation commissioned by Pope Francis, in which he largely absolved himself, put fault chiefly on his predecessors, Pope Benedict XVI, and in particular on Pope John Paul II.
Cardinal McCarrick had been a spokesman for orthodoxy, opposing abortion and defending celibacy for an all-male priesthood, heterosexual marriage and the infallibility of the pope on doctrinal matters.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/04/us/th...-dead.html
Theodore E. McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington and the highest American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church to be accused of sexually abusing minors and seminarians — a charge that stripped him of his ministry, his place in the College of Cardinals and his priesthood, reducing him to the status of a layman — has died. He was 94.
The accusations against Cardinal McCarrick, who had helped shape many of his church’s policies for responding to its sexual abuse crisis, were shocking but hardly incredible when they came to light in 2018, after a church investigation concluded that he had molested a teenage altar server in 1971 and 1972 while he was monsignor in New York City. Thousands of priests before him had faced charges of abuse, and the church had paid victims hundreds of millions in settlements. In 2012, Cardinal Bernard F. Law, the archbishop of Boston and America’s senior prelate, resigned amid revelations that he had protected pedophile priests for years.
Although Cardinal McCarrick promptly resigned his ministry “at the direction of Pope Francis,” church officials said, he contended that he was innocent, saying he had no recollection of the reported abuse.
Other sexual misconduct allegations against him soon emerged. Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin of Newark said that during a McCarrick ministry in Metuchen, N.J., in the 1980s, when Cardinal McCarrick was bishop of the diocese there, three adults accused him of improprieties that led to two financial settlements. And former priests said he had had sexual contact with dozens of New Jersey seminarians, who called him “Uncle Ted.”
An investigation by The New York Times in 2018 revealed that members of the church hierarchy had known for decades about accusations that Father McCarrick had preyed on men who aspired to the priesthood, sexually harassing and touching them.
How Cardinal McCarrick was able to avoid exposure for his crimes seemed to have been answered by a Washington Post investigation, showing that starting in 2001, he had sent checks totaling more than $600,000 to some 100 powerful Catholic clerics, including Vatican officials, some of them directly involved in assessing misconduct claims against him. The checks were drawn from a special charity account of the Archdiocese of Washington, where he began serving as archbishop in 2001.
In November 2020, the Vatican released a report detailing how the disgraced former prelate had risen through the church hierarchy despite longstanding allegations of sexual misconduct. The report, based on an investigation commissioned by Pope Francis, in which he largely absolved himself, put fault chiefly on his predecessors, Pope Benedict XVI, and in particular on Pope John Paul II.
Cardinal McCarrick had been a spokesman for orthodoxy, opposing abortion and defending celibacy for an all-male priesthood, heterosexual marriage and the infallibility of the pope on doctrinal matters.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/04/us/th...-dead.html
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
