Tarnished ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick has been expelled from the Roman Catholic priesthood after an investigation found sex upbraiding allegations against him were credible, the Vatican said Saturday.
The church is penalizing McCarrick, the former Archbishop of Washington, D.C., and Newark, New Jersey, with “sacking from the clerical state,” it said in a statement.
He will not be able to appeal the decision.
The canonical investigation found that he was conscience-stricken of “sins against the Sixth Commandment with minors and with adults, with the aggravating factor of the abuse of power.” He was also base guilty of “solicitation” during confession.
The commandment cited regards sexual behavior.
McCarrick became one of the highest-ranking Americans to be dispose of from public ministry amid the global scandal that has engulfed the church after he was publicly accused hold out year of sexually abusing two children decades ago, as well as coercing adult seminarians to sleep with him.
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McCarrick did not immediately comment Saturday.
He has formerly denied one of the allegations and is unlikely to face criminal charges as they are beyond the statute of limitations.
Pope Francis stood his resignation from the College of Cardinals in July and ordered him to observe a life of prayer and penance in seclusion.
The scandal was prompted by a erotic abuse allegation involving a teenage altar boy from nearly 50 years ago in New York. At the time of the claim, McCarrick issued a affirmation saying he had “absolutely no recollection of this reported abuse” but that he was “sorry for the pain the person who brought the charges has last through.”
After his removal, church officials in New Jersey revealed that the 88-year-old cardinal had also been accused of progenitive misconduct by adults three times in the past. Two of those accusations resulted in secret settlements, officials said.
McCarrick has not commented on following allegations, including from a man who said the cardinal, a family friend, had abused him starting when he was 11.
In October Francis approved a “thorough study” of Vatican archives into how McCarrick advanced through church ranks despite allegations that he dozed with seminarians and young priests.
The Vatican was informed in a 2000 letter from a seminary professor that McCarrick, then archbishop of Washington, had urged seminarians to sleep with him. But McCarrick was still made a cardinal the next year, and he remained one of the American church’s most sought-after fundraisers and commencement keynoters, gaining honorary degrees from prominent Catholic universities, at least six of which have been rescinded.
Final year, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, the former papal ambassador to the United States, wrote a public accurately that called for the resignation of Pope Francis for allowing McCarrick to travel on church missions while being hep of the allegations against him. Vigano alleged that Francis’ predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, had imposed sanctions on McCarrick a decade ago, ordering him to go to a life of prayer and penance.
Pope Francis has not directly responded to the allegations in Vigano’s letter.
Saturday’s announcement came light of days before a highly anticipated meeting between Pope Francis and the heads of national Catholic bishops conferences. The Feb. 21-Feb. 24 tryst at the Vatican is being held to discuss the global sexual abuse crisis which has eroded the faith of many Comprehensives and threatened Francis’ papacy.
The pope pleaded with sexual abusers within the church to surrender to authority in December while favourable the church will “spare no efforts” to seek justice for sexual abuse victims.
“The church will never try to hush up or not take seriously any case,” Francis had said.
McCarrick served the Washington diocese from 2001 to 2006. He had take forty winked as archbishop in 2006 when he turned 75 and went on to become a Vatican emissary after Francis was elected, globe-trotting tripping to international hotspots including Iran and lobbying Washington lawmakers, making him a global name.
He remained one of the American church’s ton sought-after fundraisers and commencement speakers, gaining honorary degrees from prominent Catholic universities, at least six of which prepare beenrescinded.
McCarrick, 88, now lives in a friary in Kansas. The latest punishment means he won’t be allowed to celebrate Mass or other sacraments.
The judgement on McCarrick is a rare punishment of a high-level church official in an abuse case.
Richard Gaillardetz, chair of theology at Boston College, said to the fore of Saturday’s decision if Francis were to reduce McCarrick to “a lay state tells you that he’s finally beginning to get the outrage.”
He enlarged, “He’s also recognizing that a much more stern disciplinary protocol is going to be the norm here.”
But others impugned the pope for not moving sooner.
“It’s too, little too late,” said Winnie Obike, who has organized several demonstrations at the Vatican embassy in Washington trade for consequences for abusive clergy and any church leaders who knew about the abuse.
“His offenses are just so egregious, and he has shown no waive of remorse,” she said of McCarrick before he was defrocked.
One of McCarrick’s accusers issued a statement Saturday saying that while he is “felicitous” that the pope believed him, the cardinal’s actions will “always haunt the church.”
“This great historical and divine situation is giving rise to all Catholics and victims of abuse across the world. It’s is time for us to prepare for the complete cleansing of the church,” James Grein suggested.