Vatican officials announced Nov. 6 that the Holy See will release Nov. 10 a long-awaited report on the investigation about the ascent to power of now-disgraced former U.S. Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick. The report’s release comes days before the U.S. bishops gather virtually Nov. 16 and 17 for their annual meeting. “On Tuesday, 10th November Read more
Posts Tagged ‘Cardinal McCarrick’
Former Cardinal McCarrick faces laicisation. What does it mean?
Thursday, February 14th, 2019
Archbishop Theodore McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington who last summer was removed from public ministry and who then resigned from the College of Cardinals, could also be dismissed from the clerical state, one of the highest forms of punishment issued to priests. Also known as laicisation and sometimes referred to colloquially as defrocking, a Read more
Cardinal Wuerl on his resignation, Pope Francis’ letter and more
Monday, October 15th, 2018
In an exclusive conversation with America, conducted Oct. 11, Cardinal Donald Wuerl spoke about the reasons he asked the pope to accept his resignation, stating that “what is important now is to be able to move beyond the questions of doubt, fallibility and not concentrating on myself but helping this church to get to a Read more
Facing John Paul II’s legacy in sex abuse crisis
Monday, October 8th, 2018
After the Vietnam War ended, U.S. military leaders recognized that they could not grasp what went wrong and begin to fix it unless everyone could speak with absolute candor. Every crisis demands the same, including the sex abuse crisis. So, while it is always a mistake to try and figure out what the crazies at Read more
Catholic Church enables sex abuse crisis; forcing gay priests to stay in the closet
Monday, September 3rd, 2018
The Catholic Church is being rocked — again — by high-level sexual abuse scandals, with allegations in recent weeks surfacing in Chile, Honduras and the District, home to Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, a once-super-popular cleric who is facing accusations by five males of harassment or abuse. And again, people say they are shocked and outraged, which Read more
McCarrick kept a robust public presence during years he was allegedly sanctioned
Monday, September 3rd, 2018
While Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò makes a number of accusations against former and current Vatican officials in his 11-page letter, there is only one he aims at Pope Francis. Vigano alleges Pope Francis knew former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick had “corrupted generations of seminarians and priests” but nonetheless decided to lift sanctions. Sanctions that included “a Read more
Catholic Church should not be shocked at McCarrick situation: It should be ashamed
Thursday, July 19th, 2018
The Catholic Church cannot pretend to be shocked about the pattern of sexual abuse of adult seminarians by Cardinal McCarrick, recently detailed in a comprehensive story in The New York Times. As The Times made clear in its reporting, many church leaders had received multiple notices of the cardinal’s behavior. Local dioceses had been told, Read more
Cardinal McCarrick and the Church’s ticking time bombs
Monday, July 2nd, 2018
The revelation that 87-year-old retired Cardinal Theodore McCarrick has been removed from public ministry on charges that he twice molested a teenage boy in New York in 1970 and 1971 marks a new low for the Catholic Church in the United States. All these years, McCarrick apparently knew he was a ticking time bomb, a Read more
How did the Cardinal McCarrick secret last so long?
Thursday, June 28th, 2018
At least fifteen years ago, I wrote a confidential email message to a few trusted friends, telling them to brace themselves. Within a few days, I said, a major secular newspaper would break a sensational story about Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. To my surprise, the newspaper never ran the story—which finally came out 20 June. At Read more
Cardinal McCarrick is a molester
Monday, June 25th, 2018
Innocence? I believe McCarrick is lying, and that he knows he is lying. I have been waiting for this story to break since 2002. Back then, I received a tip from a priest who had gone on his own dime to Rome, along with a group of prominent US Catholic laymen, to meet with an Read more