WASHINGTON (DC)
The Catholic Thing
June 27, 2018
By Russell Shaw
“How could someone with that on his record ever have become a cardinal?”
That question has been asked repeatedly since the disclosure that Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, 87, former Archbishop of Washington, has been suspended from public ministry by order of the pope in the face of an allegation – deemed “credible and substantiated” by the New York Archdiocese – that he abused a minor there forty-seven years ago.
Cardinal McCarrick says he has no recollection of this happening and is appealing his suspension through a canonical process. The Archdiocese of New York, where the cardinal served as a priest, says the allegation was lodged only a few months ago.
But, meanwhile, the Archdiocese of Newark and the Diocese of Metuchen, N.J., where he served as ordinary from 1981 to 2001, say two of three allegations of sexual misconduct against him there, involving adults, resulted in settlements with the complainants. He was transferred to Washington and named a cardinal in 2001.
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