Ex-cardinal McCarrick defrocked by Vatican
ROME — The Vatican on Saturday said it had defrocked ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick, leveling a historic penalty against a onetime church power broker and former archbishop of Washington after the church found him guilty of sexual abuse.
It is the most significant abuse-related punishment given to a onetime cardinal in the modern history of the Roman Catholic Church.
In a short statement, the Vatican said a canonical process had found McCarrick guilty of two charges: soliciting sex during Confession, and committing “sins” with minors and adults, “with the aggravating factor of the abuse of power.”
The defrocking, which strips McCarrick of the rights of the priesthood, marks the conclusion of a closed-door Vatican proceeding and comes just days before Pope Francis plans to gather bishops from around the world for an unprecedented summit on abuse.
It also finalizes the downfall for a figure who entered the priesthood six decades ago, climbed the ranks of the faith and earned influence and honorifics – before becoming a symbol of the church’s struggle to root out abuse in its highest ranks.
“He was cardinal up until a few months ago. Today, he is Mr. McCarrick,” said the Rev. Davide Cito, a canon lawyer at Rome’s Pontifical University of the Holy Cross. “This is a humiliation in that world such as one cannot imagine.”
The decision against McCarrick is known formally as a “dismissal from the clerical state.” The sentence is considered by the Catholic Church to be the most severe form of canonical punishment for a cleric – worse than excommunication, which is temporary and lasts only as long as a person persists in sin.
McCarrick, 88, accused of sexually abusing three minors and harassing adult seminarians, likely won’t face criminal prosecution, because the allegations that have been made public relate to crimes that would be beyond statutes of limitations in the U.S. jurisdictions where they are said to have occurred.
In its statement Saturday, the Vatican said that its Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had found McCarrick guilty of the charges on Jan. 11. Then, on Feb. 13, the Vatican “considered the recourse” McCarrick presented but con- firmed the original decision – a determination McCarrick was informed of on Friday. Pope Francis has affirmed the decision, meaning it is final.
A Virginia man, James Grein, who has said McCarrick abused him for years, starting when he was 11, said in a statement on Saturday that “nothing can give me back my childhood and I have not taken any pleasure in testifying or discussing what happened to me.”
“With that said,” Grein wrote, “today I am happy that the Pope believed me. I am hopeful now I can pass through my anger for the last time. I hope that Cardinal McCarrick will no longer be able to use the power of Jesus’ Church to manipulate families and sexually abuse children.”
The accusations against McCarrick, and the notion that they languished for years, have been a central component of a renewed and painful global crisis for the church. To critics of the Vatican and of Pope Francis, McCarrick’s case exemplified a persistent culture of secrecy and coverup and a reluctance to hold church leaders accountable.
McCarrick’s defrocking had been widely expected among church experts, who had said that the Vatican was trying to conclude the proceedings in advance of the four-day meeting on sexual abuse. Francis has tried to tamp down expectations for that summit, but the decision on McCarrick acts as its own “signal moment,” said Austen Ivereigh, a Francis biographer.
Ivereigh said it was telling that the Vatican charges included McCarrick’s alleged actions not just with minors but also adults.
“Francis sees very clearly that sexual abuse is an abuse of power,” Ivereigh said. “You can’t get a clearer signal of that than this.”
In a statement, the Archdiocese of Washington said that it hoped and prayed that this “decision serves to help the healing process for survivors of abuse, as well as those who have experienced disappointment or disillusionment because of what former Archbishop McCarrick has done.”
Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the Vatican’s decision showed that “no bishop, no matter how influential, is above the law of the Church.”
McCarrick was a globe-trotting diplomat, representing the Vatican abroad, advocating for human rights and religious freedom.