One of the most respected US cardinals has been accused of sexually abusing both children and adult seminarians, raising questions about who in the Catholic Church hierarchy may have known as well as what Pope Francis is going to do about it.
Cardinal Theodore McCarrick was removed from public ministry in June following allegations of sex abuse that were brought to the Vatican’s attention several years ago.
On Friday a new alleged victim claimed McCarrick assaulted him for two decades beginning in 1969 when he was 11 and the priest was 39.
Now all eyes are on Pope Francis, who has already denounced a ‘culture of cover-up’ within the Catholic Church and will be faced with deciding whether to revoke McCarrick’s title as cardinal or even defrock him altogether.
Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, one of the most respected cardinals in the US, has been accused of sexually abusing both boys and adult seminarians. The allegations surrounding the 88-year-old have raised questions about who in the Catholic Church hierarchy may have known about the alleged misconduct as well as what Pope Francis is going to do about it
Pope Francis will be faced with deciding whether to revoke McCarrick’s title as cardinal or even defrock him altogether. The two religious leaders are pictured together in 2015
McCarrick’s alleged sexual misconduct has been referred to as an open secret in American church circles.
The priest known as ‘Uncle Teddy’ is said to have frequently invited adult seminarians over to his beach house and into his bed.
McCarrick’s cardinal brethren has been remarkably silent about what knowledge they may have had regarding the alleged abuse.
The decision to remove the 88-year-old from the public ministry was issued after an allegation that he fondled a teenager more than 40 years ago was deemed ‘credible and substantiated’.
According to the Washington Post, the alleged victim – now in his 60s – said he was a student at Cathedral Preparatory and Seminary school in Queens, New York, in 1971 when he was picked to be the altar boy for a Christmas service at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, where McCarrick was a monsignor.
Patrick Noaker, the victim’s attorney, said McCarrick was measuring the then-16-year-old for a cassock when he ‘unzipped his pants and put his hands in the boy’s pants’. McCarrick allegedly told the teen not to tell anyone what happened.
A year later, McCarrick allegedly assaulted the teen again. Noaker said that McCarrick followed the boy into a restroom and ‘assaulted him, tried to get his hands into his underwear. The boy had to push him away’.
The victim never told the church about what happened until recently when it created the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program, which reviews cases of alleged abuse by clergy and compensates victims.
McCarrick denied the allegations, saying that he has ‘no recollection of this reported abuse’.
McCarrick was removed from public ministry in June following allegations of sex abuse that were brought to the Vatican’s attention several years ago
The priest’s reputation took another blow this week when alleged victim James came forward in an interview with the New York Times.
McCarrick, a friend of James’ family, allegedly entered the 11-year-old’s bedroom when he was changing out of his bathing suit.
‘He said: Turn around,” and I really don’t want to, because I don’t want to show anybody anything,’ James recalled.
James said that when he complied, ‘Uncle Teddy’ dropped his pants, too.
‘See, we are the same,’ the priest allegedly told him. ‘It’s okay, we are the same.’
In a following interview with AP, James said: ‘I was the first guy he baptized. I was his little boy. I was his special kid.’
The incident marked the beginning of two decades of alleged abuse, according to James.
The now-60-year-old said he was relieved when the news about McCarrick being removed from public service was announced last month.
Francis, pictured Sunday, has already denounced a ‘culture of cover-up’ within the Church
A spokeswoman for McCarrick said Friday the cardinal hadn’t received formal notice of any new allegation but would follow the civil and church processes in place to investigate them.
The Reverend Thomas Berg, the vice rector and director of admissions at St Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers, told AP: ‘There is going to be so much clamor for the Holy Father to remove the red hat, to formally un-cardinalize [McCarrick].’
Berg said the church needs to ensure that men with deep-seated same-sex attraction simply don’t enter seminaries – a position recently reinforced by the Vatican at large and by Francis in comments to Chilean and Italian bishops.
He added that the church also needs to take action when celibacy vows are violated.
‘We can’t effectively prevent the sexual abuse of minors or vulnerable adults by clergy while habitual and widespread failures in celibacy are quietly tolerated,’ he said.
Francis had ordered McCarrick to be removed from the College of Cardinals on June 20 around the same time that the dioceses of Newark and Metuchen, New Jersey, revealed that they had received three complaints of misconduct by McCarrick against adults and had settled two of them.
While the statute of limitations on the alleged sex crimes has run out, the pope could take immediate action to remove McCarrick from the College, said Kurt Martens, a canon lawyer at the Catholic University of America.
The stiffest punishment that an ordinary priest would face if such an accusation is proven would be dismissal from the clerical state, or laicization.
The Vatican rarely if ever, however, imposes such a penalty on elderly prelates. It also is loath to do so for bishops, because theologically speaking, defrocked bishops can still validly ordain priests and bishops.