Ex-U.S. Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick charged with 3 counts of sexual assault against a minor
(The AEGIS Alliance) – Ex-United States Catholic Church Cardinal Theodore McCarrick is facing charges that include 3 counts of sexual assault on a minor over 14 years of age, court documents The Boston Globe obtained reveal.
Back in 2018, McCarrick was eliminated from public ministry due to legitimate accusations he sexually abused an altar boy during the 1970s. Then, in 2019, Pope Francis defrocked McCarrick following a Vatican investigation that verified he did in fact sexually molest adults as well as kids.
McCarrick refuted the allegations in 2018, releasing a statement claiming, “While I have absolutely no recollection of this reported abuse, and believe in my innocence, I am sorry for the pain the person who brought the charges has gone through, as well as for the scandal such charges cause our people.”
The Vatican released a report in November of 2020 that was more than 400 pages concerning past accusations of sex-related misbehavior against McCarrick that stretched over decades.
McCarrick is actually the very first U.S. cardinal to ever face criminal charges involving a sexual criminal offense against an underage person, Mitchell Garabedian noted, who’s a prominent attorney for sexual abuse victims in the church that is working with the man accusing McCarrick of abusing him.
“It takes an enormous amount of courage for a sexual abuse victim to report having been sexually abused to investigators and proceed through the criminal process,” Garabedian pointed out in an email. “Let the facts be presented, the law applied, and a fair verdict rendered.”
Barry Coburn, a legal representative for McCarrick, stated he will “look forward to addressing the case in the courtroom,” and also refused to make additional remarks.
A report submitted in court points out the male victim said to detectives that McCarrick had been a family member’s friend and started abusing him while he was just a kid.
The man stated that McCarrick groped him back when he was only 16 in 1974 as they walked through the grounds of Wellesley College, where his brother’s wedding party had been held. The guy additionally accuses McCarrick of leading him into a room and then fondling the boy prior to telling the boy to ” say three our fathers and a Hail Mary or it was one our father and three Hail Marys, so God can redeem you of your sins,” the court filings show.
The case created an integrity dilemma for the church due to the fact that the Vatican had records from authoritative cardinals that date back to 1999 that McCarrick’s actions were troublesome, however, he came to be a significant cardinal, kingmaker, and also emissary of the Holy See’s “soft diplomacy.”
Kyle James Lee – The AEGIS Alliance – This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
