Former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick was among the most powerful officials in the Catholic Church until he was removed from ministry in 2018 after the Church deemed as credible an allegation of child sexual abuse against him.
He was defrocked a year later by Pope Francis after a Vatican investigation confirmed decades of rumors that he sexually abused children and adult seminary students. The two-year investigation also found bishops, cardinals, and popes downplayed or dismissed multiple reports of sexual misconduct by McCarrick.
McCarrick has now been criminally charged with sexually assaulting a teenage boy during a wedding reception in 1974. The alleged victim said McCarrick was a family friend who often performed services for the family, such as funerals and weddings. According to court filings, the victim outlined multiple incidents of abuse starting when he was young.
The alleged victim said that at the wedding in question, McCarrick asked him to go for a walk, stating that the boy’s father suggested he was being “mischievous at home and not attending church.” The victim said McCarrick groped him during that time, then took him to a coat room to “hear the boy’s confession.” He said while in the coatroom, McCarrick sexually assaulted him again before telling the boy to say a few prayers in absolution for his sins.
Court documents show that McCarrick was charged in a Massachusetts court on three counts of indecent assault and battery. The Boston Globe first reported the charges on July 29. McCarrick is the first cardinal (and highest-ranking church official) in the U.S. ever to be criminally charged with a sexual crime against a minor. He is set to be arraigned on September 3.
The alleged victim’s testimony is similar to many other McCarrick victims who have come forward in recent years. McCarrick has been sued by several men in New York and New Jersey who say he abused them as children. Unfortunately, for the most part, the statute of limitations has barred authorities from pursuing criminal charges.
Under Massachusetts law, the statute of limitations would have been suspended when McCarrick, who worked in the New York Archdiocese at the time, left the state after the wedding. However, the law contains a provision allowing for the prosecution of crimes in certain circumstances, even those that occurred many years ago.
The widespread plague of sexual abuse by clergy has run rampant in the upper levels of the Catholic Church for years – Cardinal Pell, Bishop Juan Barros, Bishop John Jenik, and Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, to name a few. However, McCarrick was distinctive in having reached the highest church leadership circles — even as awareness of his suspect behavior spread steadily through the hierarchy.
In the 1980s, in the most challenging case of my career, I witnessed first-hand how the Catholic Church was a master at spin control. Back then, no one wanted to believe that a priest could engage in such vile conduct with a young parishioner. The case had such a strong impact on me, that I vowed to one day tell the story in print.
While my novel Betrayal of Faith is a fictionalized account of an actual event, it highlights real-life internal church policies — conspiracy, cover-up, false denial, secret transfer of predator priests, and victim shaming. The Archdiocese’s approach to the litigation and scandal was all about the Church, not the safety and well-being of children. There has been a long-standing policy of vigorously defending predator priests, while shaming victims.
Justice has been denied far too long. Fortunately, as more cases are being brought forward, the credibility of the victims has become more established. It is time for complete transparency at all levels of the Church and the establishment of active protocols to combat this crisis. The arrest of Cardinal McCarrick is far overdue, a watershed event for survivors and their families. Even justice delayed is better than justice denied.
Mark M. Bello, a trial lawyer, is the author of “Betrayal of Faith" and other ‘ripped from the headlines’ Zachary Blake Social Justice Legal Thrillers available on Amazon.com and other online booksellers. For more information, please visit www.markmbello.com. Mark also is co-host of the new podcast, Justice Counts, which beginning Aug. 16 will feature an interview with attorney Michael Bryant who represents numerous victims of abuse by Catholic priests.