The disgraced former cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, removed from the clerical state in 2019 after revelations of credible allegations of sexual abuse of minors and misconduct against adults, has died in Missouri. He was 94.
Archbishop of Washington from 2001-2006 and a once powerful figure in the Catholic Church in the United States known to successfully fundraise for Vatican causes, McCarrick was removed from ministry at the direction of the Vatican in June 2018 due to a credible allegation of sexual abuse of a teenager investigated by the Archdiocese of New York.
McCarrick’s attorney confirmed his death April 4 to OSV News. According to multiple sources, he died April 3.
In July 2018, The New York Times detailed allegations that McCarrick abused two seminarians in the 1980s that resulted in abuse settlements from the Diocese of Metuchen, N.J., and a separate allegation from the first child McCarrick baptized, who detailed instances of abuse over 20 years, beginning when the boy was 11.
The public allegations led to revelations that McCarrick had been accused over the years of sexual misconduct involving adults, including against seminarians and young priests, some of which had resulted in legal settlements between dioceses and victims.
At the time he was removed from ministry, then-Cardinal McCarrick maintained his innocence and said he did not have recollection of the alleged abuse.
In July 2018, Pope Francis accepted McCarrick’s resignation from the College of Cardinals and suspended him from public ministry. Pope Francis confirmed McCarrick’s removal from the priesthood in February 2019 after he was found guilty of “solicitation in the Sacrament of Confession and sins against the Sixth Commandment with minors and with adults, with the aggravating factor of the abuse of power.”
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