Pope takes US cardinal’s resignation
Former DC archbishop accused of sexually abusing minor in 1970s
Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of retired Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the former Washington, D.C., archbishop who faces allegations of sexually abusing a minor 47 years ago when he was a priest in New York, the Vatican said Saturday.
The Vatican said Francis received the U.S. prelate’s offer to resign from the College of Cardinals a day earlier.
The pope ordered McCarrick’s suspension from the exercise of any public ministry and directed him to “a life of prayer and penance” until the accusations of sexual misconduct are examined in a regular canonical trial.
“While I have absolutely no recollection of this reported abuse, and believe in my innocence, I am sorry for the pain the person who brought the charges has gone through, as well as for the scandal such charges cause our people,” McCarrick, 88, said in a statement.
Although no additional allegations were found regarding abuse with minors, the review process did find claims that the retired cardinal had engaged in sexual misconduct with adults while he served in New Jersey.
As a result of charges that church officials called “credible and substantiated,” McCarrick stepped down from active ministry in June.
At the time of the alleged abuse, McCarrick was private secretary to Cardinal Terence Cooke, a position he held from 1971 to 1977, according to a statement from the Archdiocese of New York.
A Catholic University canon law expert, Kurt Martens, told The Associated Press this was the first time an order of penance and prayer had been issued before a church trial.
“The Vatican almost never moves at this speed,” Terence McKiernan, of Bishop Accountability, a Massachusetts-based group, told the AP. The pope appears to “understand the gravity of the situation and further harm to the Catholic church’s status,” he said.