Former Archbishop of Washington DC Theodore Edgar McCarrick was stripped of the title of cardinal in 2018
Vatican City:
The Vatican admitted on Tuesday that the late Pope John Paul II ignored advice against promoting US Pastor Theodore McCarrick to cardinal position given rumors of sexual misconduct against him that were later corroborated.
The confession was made within 450 pages of the findings of a two-year who knew what investigation about McCarrick’s abuse of at least one teenager and a number of male seminarians.
The latest in a decades-old abuse scandal that rocked the Catholic Church around the world, the report also states that John Paul II’s decisions were influenced by “inaccurate and incomplete information” from American bishops.
McCarrick, a former archbishop of Washington DC, was stripped of his cardinal title in 2018 and priesthood in 2019, becoming the Church’s highest figure to be expelled in modern times.
He had been convicted by the Vatican of mistreating the teenager in the 1970s as well as years of misconduct, such as inviting seminarians to his beach house where he made them share his bed.
The Vatican report cited interviews with victims describing “sexual abuse or assault, unwanted sexual activity, intimate physical contact”.
He also detailed the “abuse of authority and power” of McCarrick, a very influential figure who played a key role in raising funds for the Holy See from wealthy American donors.
US group SNAP, for survivors of priest abuse, welcomed the report but called for “punishment and deportation of those who knew of McCarrick’s crimes but did nothing to stop them “.
– The error of John Paul II –
Based on documents as well as more than 90 witness interviews, the report says the first official allegation of pedophilia against McCarrick was only made in 2017 – when the Vatican reacted.
But survivors wondered why the man nicknamed “Uncle Ted” was appointed to Washington’s prestigious post in late 2000 and created the cardinal in 2001, despite concerns about his behavior.
Report says John Paul II personally decided to nominate McCarrick, despite a letter from the then Archbishop of New York summarizing allegations including sexual conduct with another priest and sharing a bed with young people men.
“Information regarding McCarrick’s conduct led to the conclusion that it would be unwise to transfer him from Newark to another See three times,” including initially in Washington in 2000, but the pontiff “changed his notice “.
The report cited as reasons that the only individual citing misconduct at the time was considered “unreliable” in part “because he himself had previously abused two adolescents.”
In addition, three US bishops asked about the allegations “having provided inaccurate and incomplete information to the Holy See”.
McCarrick also wrote a letter in 2000 which was shown to the Pope insisting that he had “never had sex with anyone, man or woman, young or old, religious or secular, and I had never abused another person “.
The report further cites McCarrick’s personal friendship with John Paul II, which “likely had an impact on the Pope’s decision-making.”
Vatican expert Christopher Lamb said the revelations were striking.
“What makes the document unprecedented is its willingness to face the mistake that was made by a pope and now Saint John Paul II,” he wrote on the religious news website. The Tablet.
– ‘Plausible denial’ –
Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, which tracks abuses in the office, hailed the report as “a step towards real transparency.”
“McCarrick’s intoxicating rise under John Paul II despite an increasingly thickened complaints record is a case study of how complicity often manifests itself in the crisis of Catholic abuse – as a failure to investigate and ‘act to maintain plausible deniability, “she told AFP.
The report says the next pontiff, Pope Benedict XVI, also failed to act on the rumors, influenced in part by McCarrick swearing on his “bishop’s oath” that they were false. But the Vatican asked him to “keep a low profile”.
His successor Pope Francis is largely absolved in the report, which says he received no documentation of any allegations until 2017, and “sees no need to change the approach” from his predecessors.
Supporters of Francis say his removal of McCarrick once the truth comes out is an example of his “zero tolerance” policy even for high-ranking church members, but Barrett Doyle said he should have asked. no more questions.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has said it is studying the results and has offered “its deepest sadness and deepest apologies” to all of McCarrick’s victims.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
