Report into disgraced ex US cardinal shows failings by popes, top clerics

Vatican City, November 10

A Vatican report into disgraced ex-US Cardinal Theodore McCarrick factors to failings by popes, Vatican officers and senior US clerics who let him rise via the Catholic ranks regardless of repeated allegations of sexual misconduct.

McCarrick, a extremely influential determine within the American Church, was expelled from the Roman Catholic priesthood final 12 months after a Vatican investigation discovered him responsible of sexual crimes towards minors and adults and abuse of energy.

With testimony from 90 witnesses and dozens of paperwork, letters and transcripts from Vatican and US Church archives, the 460-page doc affords a exceptional reckoning by an establishment identified for its secrecy, portraying a person lengthy capable of persuade superiors of his innocence.

The report mentioned that “credible evidence” that the previous archbishop of Washington, D.C. had abused minors when he was a priest within the 1970s didn’t floor till 2017.

But it mentioned the US Church hierarchy was conscious of constant rumours that after McCarrick grew to become a bishop within the early 1980s he preyed on grownup male seminarians.

“During extended interviews, often emotional, the persons described a range of behaviour, including sexual abuse or assault, unwanted sexual activity, intimate physical contact and the sharing of beds without physical touching,” the report’s introduction says.

McCarrick has mentioned he had no recollection of kid abuse and has not commented publicly on allegations of misconduct with adults. Now aged 90, he’s residing in isolation. The two legal professionals who represented him didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

A delayed promotion

The report has gained significance because it was ordered by Pope Francis in 2018 and one in all McCarrick’s alleged victims has since sued the US Church in a trial anticipated to residence in on what officers knew.

The report mentioned there was “no credible information” suggesting misconduct earlier than McCarrick’s appointments within the 1980s, however that in hindsight, the Vatican’s investigations of later allegations towards McCarrick had been of a “limited nature”.

In 1999, Cardinal John O’Connor suggested Pope John Paul II that it might be imprudent to advertise McCarrick due to “rumours” of sexual misconduct with seminarians in Metuchen and Newark courting again to the 1980s.

An investigation by the Vatican ambassador to the United States, requested by John Paul, “confirmed that McCarrick had shared a bed with young men” however mentioned there was no certainty that he had engaged in sexual acts.

On August 6, 2000, McCarrick wrote to Pope John Paul’s personal secretary to rebut the allegations made by Cardinal O’Connor.

“McCarrick’s denial was believed,” the report mentioned.

In November, 2000, Pope John Paul appointed McCarrick archbishop of Washington, D.C., one of the vital prestigious posts within the US Church. There, he hobnobbed with world leaders and shone as a star fundraiser for the Church.

The report mentioned investigations in 2019-2020 decided that three of the 4 bishops had offered “inaccurate and incomplete” details about McCarrick’s sexual conduct. The omissions “impacted the conclusions of John Paul II’s advisors and, consequently, of John Paul II himself,” the report mentioned.

It went on to say the Vatican by no means obtained a direct grievance from a sufferer and it was believable, given the knowledge it had, to “characterise the allegations against him as ‘gossip or ‘rumours'”.

Defending a saint

John Paul died in 2005 and was declared a saint in 2014. The report mentioned his willingness to consider McCarrick’s denial was doubtless influenced by his expertise in his native Poland when the communist authorities used “spurious allegations against bishops to degrade the standing of the Church”.

The Vatican, then underneath newly-elected Pope Benedict XVI, instructed McCarrick he ought to withdraw as bishop after it grew to become conscious of extra data from a sufferer recognized as “Priest 1”, the report mentioned. Benedict accepted McCarrick’s resignation in 2006.

In 2008, three high Vatican officers prompt the pope approve a canonical investigation “to determine the truth and, if warranted, impose an ‘exemplary measure'”.

A Vatican official as a substitute requested McCarrick to “maintain a lower profile and minimise travel for the good of the Church”.

But, as a result of there have been no “explicit instructions from the Holy Father,” (Pope Benedict) McCarrick continued his public actions.

The report says Benedict doubtless rejected the thought of an investigation as a result of there have been “no credible allegations of child abuse”, as a result of McCarrick had sworn on his oath as a bishop that he had not sexually abused anybody and “there was no indication of any recent misconduct” (with adults).

After he was elected in 2013, Pope Francis grew to become conscious of “allegations and rumours” regarding McCarrick’s previous behaviour, the report mentioned.

“Believing the allegations had already been reviewed and rejected by Pope John Paul, and well aware that McCarrick was active during the papacy of Benedict XVI, Pope Francis did not see the need to alter the approach that had been adopted in prior years,” the report says.

Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, a former Vatican ambassador, has accused Francis of permitting McCarrick to proceed his travels and lifting “sanctions” he mentioned had been imposed by Benedict. The Vatican has mentioned there have been no formal sanctions.

The report mentioned no documentation of any abuse by McCarrick was given to Pope Francis earlier than 2017, when McCarrick was accused of abusing a minor within the 1970s, resulting in the Vatican investigation that led to his expulsion from the priesthood. — Reuters