Greeted by ‘shame on you’

Ex-cardinal pleads not guilty to sex assault of boy, 16

Former U.S. Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick pleaded not guilty Friday to sexually assaulting a 16-year-old boy nearly 50 years ago during a wedding reception in Massachusetts.

The 91-year-old former archbishop of Washington, D.C. — who was once one of the country’s most influential Catholic leaders — was charged in late July with three counts of indecent assault and battery on a person over 14.

A frail-looking McCarrick (photo), who now lives in Missouri, entered suburban Boston’s Dedham District Court on Friday morning wearing a face mask and pushing a walker, as a protester shouted, “Shame on you!”

He was ordered to stay away from the victim and have no contact with minors after the court entered a not-guilty plea on his behalf.

Bail was set at $5,000. He didn’t speak during the hearing.

His attorney, Katherine Zimmerl, declined to comment but said that they are “looking forward to addressing the allegations in court.”

McCarrick, the first cardinal to ever be criminally charged with sexually assaulting a minor, rose to the top of the Catholic Church in the U.S. after he was ordained as a priest of the Archdiocese of New York in 1958.

The fall from grace of the once-prominent religious leader began in 2017 when a former altar boy alleged that McCarrick had groped him when he was a teenager in New York. In 2018 he was removed from public ministry over the allegations.

In February 2019, Pope Francis confirmed the defrocking of McCarrick, who was then 88, after a panel of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith found him guilty.

According to the National Catholic Reporter, the Vatican announced its decision saying that McCarrick was guilty of “solicitation in the sacrament of confession and sins against the Sixth Commandment with minors and with adults, with the aggravating factor of the abuse of power.”

McCarrick appealed the decision, but it was later rejected.

In November 2020, an explosive 449-page report found that the late Pope John Paul II knew about sexual misconduct allegations against McCarrick years before he was removed from the priesthood.

The unprecedented investigation, which took two years to complete, also found that the late pontiff, as well as high-ranking church officials, helped to dismiss or downplay sexual abuse charges against McCarrick, while suggesting that John Paul II could have been blinded by his prior friendship with the ex-cardinal.

“Though there is no direct evidence, it appears likely from the information obtained that John Paul II’s past experience in Poland regarding the use of spurious allegations against bishops to degrade the standing of the Church played a role in his willingness to believe McCarrick’s denials,” according to a summary of the report.

Mitchell Garabedian, an attorney for the victim, on Friday praised his client’s “enormous amount of courage” in coming forward. “He’s ready to see this trial through the end,” he added.

“Today’s arraignment provides hope for many clergy sex abuse victims and survivors that justice will prevail, truth will be told and children will be kept safe,” Garabedian said.

The next hearing is set for Oct. 28.