As U.S. Bishops Meet, Vatican May Be Deciding Fate of Archbishop Mccarrick

By Rhina Guidos
My Catholic Standard
January 8, 2019

https://cathstan.org/news/us-world/as-u-s-bishops-meet-vatican-may-be-deciding-fate-of-archbishop-mccarrick

As U.S. bishops gathered in early January at a seminary in Illinois to pray and reflect about the Church's sex abuse crisis, reports trickled out about the possible fate of one their own being decided overseas.

The Wall Street Journal newspaper reported Jan. 5 that a decision on whether to laicize former U.S. Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, who is facing accusations that he sexually abused minors, could come as soon as mid-January because Vatican officials don't want the decision to overshadow a gathering the pope has called for, seeking to meet Feb. 21-24 with prelates from around the world about protecting minors.

Pope Francis accepted the prelate's resignation from the College of Cardinals last July, and suspended him from public ministry, ordering him to a “life of prayer and penance” until the accusations against him were examined in a canonical trial.

In September, the Archdiocese of Washington, to which he last belonged, announced that Archbishop McCarrick had been sent to live among a small community of Capuchin Franciscan friars in rural Kansas. The Vatican, meanwhile, has been investigating the accusations in order to make a decision about whether the 88-year-old archbishop will return to the lay state.

On Jan. 5, the online Catholic news outlet Crux reported that the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which handles clergy sex abuse claims among some of its responsibilities, is reviewing a third case involving Archbishop McCarrick and a minor, one more case than previously reported.