Cardinal Theodore McCarrick pictured at the Vatican in 2013
Credit: Reuters
The Vatican dismissed for decades reports that a powerful American cardinal was having sex with priests and abusing minors, allowing him to rise to the very top of the Catholic Church hierarchy, an investigation by the Holy See itself revealed on Tuesday.
Allegations that Theodore McCarrick, who favoured the nickname “Uncle Ted”, was having sex with trainee priests first emerged in the 1980s.
But they were largely discounted by Vatican officials as well as Pope John Paul II and his successor, Pope Benedict XVI, before action was finally taken by Pope Francis.
Despite multiple reports of McCarrick abusing his power and breaking his vows of celibacy, including sharing beds with young seminarians at a beach house in New Jersey, he was promoted to Archbishop of Washington in 2000, one of the most prestigious appointments in the Catholic Church. A year later, he was made a cardinal.
The release of the report was highly unusual, going against the grain of the Vatican’s reputation for secrecy and lack of transparency.
The lengthy report was released by the Vatican after a two-year investigation
Credit: Reuters
Vatican investigators reviewed thousands of pages of documents from archives in the US and Rome relating to McCarrick, who is now aged 90, and interviewed around 90 witnesses.
Those witnesses exposed the extent of McCarrick’s misconduct, “including sexual abuse or assault, unwanted sexual activity, intimate physical contact and the sharing of beds.”
The investigation found that there were allegations that McCarrick was having sex with young priests as early as 1987.
In the early 1990s, a series of anonymous letters sent to the Vatican’s ambassador in Washington and the National Conference of Catholic Bishops accused McCarrick of pedophilia.
The now disgraced cardinal “was known to have shared a bed with adult seminarians at a beach house on the New Jersey shore” at around the same time, the report said.
The allegations were reported by the Archbishop of New York and relayed to Pope John Paul II.
But the Polish pontiff nevertheless decided to appoint McCarrick as Archbishop of Washington in 2000.
The Pope had initiated an inquiry to find out if the allegations against McCarrick were true, but three of four bishops involved had “provided inaccurate and incomplete” information to Rome about McCarrick’s sexual conduct, the report said.
Cardinal McCarrick with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican
Credit: AP
John Paul II was also swayed by a written denial by McCarrick that he had ever had sex with anyone, “male or female, young or old”.
The allegations persisted under Pope Benedict. McCarrick was made to resign as Archbishop of Washington but then simply told to “maintain a lower profile and minimise travel for the good of the Church” – a request that he ignored.
Pope Francis initially ignored “allegations and rumours” relating to McCarrick’s immoral conduct but the situation changed in 2017 when an accusation emerged that McCarrick had abused a minor, a former altar boy aged 16.
The accusation, dating back to the 1970s, was found to be credible and Pope Francis demanded that McCarrick resign from the College of Cardinals. He was later expelled from the priesthood as well.
McCarrick had abused his “authority and power” and his case remained “an open wound” for the Catholic Church, the report concluded.
It denied accusations that the Holy See overlooked the abuse allegations as a reward for the fact that McCarrick was a formidable fundraiser for the Church.
The fact that it had taken so long for the Church to take action against the cardinal, despite decades of allegations against him, was due to “omissions, underestimations and choices that later proved to be wrong,” said Andrea Tornielli, a Vatican communications director.
The report accused bishops who had been questioned about McCarrick of “not always disclosing all they knew.”
The case remains an 'open wound' for the Vatican
Credit: AP
The 460-page report is the culmination of a two-year investigation ordered by Pope Francis in 2018.
One victim, James Grein, told the inquiry that he had been abused by McCarrick since the age of 11.
“There are so many people suffering out there because of one man,” he said. “And he thinks that he’s more important than the rest of us. He’s destroyed me and he’s destroyed thousands of other lives.”
The Catholic Church’s reputation has been deeply damaged by sex abuse scandals involving clergy around the world.
In Paris, the trial opened of the Vatican’s former ambassador to France, who is accused of groping young men at official ceremonies held in the capital.
Archbishop Luigi Ventura, 75, who did not attend the opening hearing, denies the charges made by five men.
He was first reported to police after a 28-year-old Paris administration official accused the archbishop of touching his buttocks three times during a New Year’s ceremony in January 2019.
Four other men later came forward with similar allegations relating to public events in France between January 2018 and February 2019.
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