RCC's ex-Cardinal McCarrick Sex Crimes Cont. (Update 2019)
Vatican investigating third accusation of abuse against ex-Cardinal McCarrick
- Christopher White --- Jan 5, 2019
Then-Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick attends a Mass in Rome April 13, 2018. On July 28 Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Cardinal McCormick from the College of Cardinals after allegations surfaced that he had sexually abused minors as well as adult seminarians.
NEW YORK - Six months after the scandal surrounding former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick first came to light - wherein accusations of sexual abuse from a former altar boy prompted subsequent revelations of abuse and misconduct - Crux has learned that the Vatican is now investigating a total of three cases of abuse against the former archbishop of Washington, one of which has yet to be publicly reported.
In June 2018, the Archdiocese of New York announced that a review board had substantiated claims of abuse against McCarrick by a former altar boy at Saint Patrick’s who reported two incidents of abuse dating back to 1971 and 1972.
In response, the Vatican suspended McCarrick from public ministry pending an investigation by the Holy See.
The following month, the New York Times first reported the case of James Grein, the child of close family friends of McCarrick, who alleged the then-priest commenced years of abuse against him beginning in the 1970s when he was 11 years old.
Since then, multiple accusations of abuse and misconduct against adult seminarians have been reported, and on July 28, Pope Francis took the highly unusual step of accepting McCarrick’s resignation from the College of Cardinals.
Meanwhile, both the unidentified altar boy’s case and that of Grein’s have been under review by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), the Vatican body responsible for handling clergy sex abuse claims.
While many observers have eagerly been awaiting the review of the two cases to see if they result in the eventual laicization of McCarrick, Crux has confirmed that a third case is currently being investigated, also from the Archdiocese of New York.
The individual in question, who at this time has chosen to remain anonymous, first reported his case less than three months ago. He is said to be in his forties and the alleged abuse by McCarrick took place when he was a minor.
While specific details of the alleged abuse are unknown, the individual was known to McCarrick through close family friends, as was Grein.
To date, no criminal or civil charges against the archbishop have been filed.
In response to a request for comment, Joseph Zwilling, director of communications for the archdiocese of New York, told Crux that “The Holy See has requested each of the dioceses where McCarrick served to do a review of his time in each diocese. Judge Jones has been asked to lead that review for the Archdiocese of New York. Any other matters concerning Archbishop McCarrick are being handled by the Holy See.”
Barbara Jones is a former federal court judge tapped by Cardinal Timothy Dolan to oversee the review of all sex abuse cases in New York and related policies and procedures.
A CDF official confirmed to Crux that a third case against McCarrick is under review and the general timeline of events but would not comment further.
As Crux previously reported in September, the four dioceses in which McCarrick served - New York; Metuchen, New Jersey; Newark; and Washington, D.C. - are all launching independent diocesan investigations into McCarrick’s history of abuse after Francis declined a request from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) for a Vatican led investigation into the matter.
In addition to the independent diocesan investigations, the Holy See announced on October 6, 2018 that Francis has ordered a “thorough study of the entire documentation present in the archives of the dicasteries and offices of the Holy See” in order to ascertain “all the relevant facts, to place them in their historical context and to evaluate them objectively.”
To date, the Holy See has not issued a report of its findings from its investigation.
On December 28, 2018, the Associated Press reported that Grein had testified before the judicial vicar for the Archdiocese of New York at the request of the CDF for their ongoing investigation into McCarrick. According to Grein’s civil attorney Patrick Noaker, McCarrick’s abuse included sexual misconduct in the confessional.
Barry Coburn, an attorney representing McCarrick in his civil cases, declined a request from Crux for comment.
Vatican observers have noted that Grein’s case against McCarrick is, canonically, much stronger, as the original allegations by the altar boy against him took place when the individual was 16 years old and, under the Church’s Code of Canon Law, would not have been considered a minor at the time.
The former cardinal, who is now 88 years old, is living at a Kansas religious residence.
Two sources have confirmed to Crux that the CDF will meet in mid-January to review all cases against McCarrick with a potential disposition by the end of the month.
IN MY OPINION by CM
Why won't Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick come clean and make a complete and total confession and spare dragging this thing out? Save the investigators and the families less time and pain. For one who has heard many confessions need to make a confession, not to another priest, but law enforcement. Bill Cosby, same crime and same general age, as the Cardinal is doing time in jail for his crimes. Should McCarrick and other guilty priests be given a pass for past sexual sins and crimes?
If I had the ear of the Pope, I would suggest, he form a truth and reconciliation-committee similar to South Africa after apartheid un the Late Nelson Mandela. The truth will get out sooner and completely; the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) regains some degree of trust, and the families can begin to heal. Based on law-enforcement some people may be required to do jail time and the RCC pay damages. I not laying all the details, but something has to be done.
Why the update? Do I have some personal animus against the RCC? The short answer, NO! The public is in danger! Too many victims are living in shame, jail, confusion and sexual addiction because of what Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick and others have done to the most vulnerable and innocents in society around the world. On the other hand, priests are living with this shame and sin; while many priests are carrying this unaddressed crime to their graves. Is there "absolution" for them? The sad truth is the volume of sexual crimes, vast payout, cover-ups, and the unidentified current pedophilia priests serving as we speak are so deep and wide. The above points demand immediate action. Is it any wonder statues of "Mary weeps" (in the midst of Hoaxes and skepticism) in Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina in Messina, Sicily, a Madonna statue appeared to weep blood in the town of Civitavecchia in Italy, Our Lady of Akita, Our Lady Guadalupe Catholic Church in Hobbs, New Mexico, etc.? The many people and victims are crying, today, real tears and not a "composition of rose scented olive oil".
I find it ironic that the RCC finds the time, money, interest, and immediacy to investigate "Weeping paintings or icons" for authentication of certainty, but slow and ineffective in identifying and turning over Sexual Predator-Priests within its ranks. Do people still matter in general, particularly, in the RCC? Is there an end in sight? CM
Comments
-
Why don’t Catholic leaders who screw up just say they’re sorry?
A clergy member prepares for a noon Mass at Shrine of the Sacred Heart in Washington in October. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
By Mike Goggin
January 15 at 1:34 PMRecent days have seen calls for greater accountability from top-ranked U.S. Catholic clerics. First, a former priest revealed that D.C. Cardinal Donald Wuerl has been untruthful about what he knew of sexual misconduct allegations against his predecessor as archbishop, Theodore McCarrick. Then on Monday, there were new calls for McCarrick himself to publicly repent for alleged abuse of youths and adults.
These past few days have prompted a basic question: Why can’t these clerics just say they’re sorry?
It’s a particular conundrum for those of us who are Catholic. The sacrament of reconciliation provides us with the opportunity to confess our sins to a priest, apologize for them, make amends and resolve to do better. When many of us prepared to practice the sacrament for the first time as children just reaching the age of reason, we were taught that lying was a sin. As we moved into adolescence, we learned that any sexual activity outside of marriage was likewise a sin. So why are our confessors finding it so hard to apologize for these very same basic sins?
[Despite denials, D.C. Cardinal Donald Wuerl knew of sexual misconduct allegations against Theodore McCarrick and reported them to Vatican]...
Growing up in the Boston of the 1970s and early 1980s, where neighborhoods were still divided along the parish boundary lines despite a growing presence of non-Catholic immigrants from around the world, great respect and even reverence were directed toward the parish priest and his assistant clergymen. These men could do no wrong. They were arbiters of grace, and their Sunday evening visits for family dinners demanded the use of the best china. The church itself taught that the members of the clergy are in their very being different because of their ordination (in the church we use the term “ontological”). While they look like any layperson, there is a fundamental difference in their being. The church still teaches this today.
I remember the shock I felt when, as a teenager, I first encountered a priest who swore, or told an off-color joke, or smoked cigarettes or drank alcohol. In the end, it really was not that hard to find all of these peccadilloes in the priests I encountered in my parish or my Jesuit high school, but the result was a certain diminishment of the clergy in my eyes. The image of a superman was tarnished. As we now know, there were many much more serious sins and crimes being committed by Catholic clergy in that same place and time, but I had no personal experience of that.
[Trump on God: ‘Hopefully I won’t have to be asking for much forgiveness’]
Fast-forward to 2019, and one would be hard-pressed to find a lay Catholic who puts his or her priest on such a pedestal. We have been jaded by the scandals of the church in Boston, and now we are experiencing a crisis of leadership locally. Keep in mind that McCarrick was ordained to the priesthood in 1958 and Wuerl in 1966, and so their respective climbs to become princes of the church took place in the “Father Knows Best” milieu of an earlier time in this country.
Sure, institutional fear of costly litigation enters in, and perhaps that is really what is preventing Wuerl from being as candid as he might like. But it is also true that we might be asking both Wuerl and McCarrick to do something that priests and bishops of their time were never expected to do. If Father was always right, an apology was never needed — especially not if you wielded the additional power and authority of a bishop.
Bishops will tell you that their power and authority come to them through the Scriptures and the tradition of the church. None of us will ever be in a position to know or judge the private prayer lives of these men, the sins they themselves confess as they do penance nor the things they discuss with their spiritual directors and companions. We are left to hope that Wuerl, in receiving the sacrament of reconciliation himself from a brother priest, did not leave his knowledge of McCarrick’s actions completely unvoiced. Should his confessor have suggested public disclosure of the same? Well, Scripture does tell us that the truth will set you free.
Time and again, we have seen examples of Americans being willing to forgive people who have let them down.
This week, a spokesman for the Catholic community Opus Dei made an unusually frank — for a faith group — admission of guilt and shame after it was forced to publicly confirm it paid nearly $1 million in a sex misconduct suit for celeb-priest C. John McCloskey and covered it up — leaving him in the same D.C. assignment for a year after the victim came forward before removing him quietly.
“The reality is he was around for a year after we were informed,” spokesman Brian Finnerty said. “That’s the reality. It’s not good. But we may as well own it. . . . It’s an argument that is no longer tenable — this 'let’s quiet things over so priests can continue to do good.’ ”
Within the past few years, some local Catholic institutions, most affiliated with the Jesuit religious order but not exclusively so, have looked at their own sad involvement in the slave trade of the 18th and 19th centuries and have apologized publicly for their complicity. My alma mater, Georgetown University, in 2017 stripped the names of two Jesuit leaders who traded in slaves in 1838 off some of the newest buildings on campus and renamed them for the first slave named on the university’s bill of sale (Isaac Hawkins) and a black educator who founded a girls’ school in the Georgetown neighborhood in that era (Anne Marie Becraft). The university also invited more than 100 of the slaves’ descendants to the renaming ceremony and offered them scholarship opportunities to study at the school.
At the ceremony, the Rev. Timothy Kesicki spoke directly to these men and women as resident of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States: “Today the Society of Jesus, who helped to establish Georgetown University and whose leaders enslaved and mercilessly sold your ancestors, stands before you to say that we have greatly sinned. We pray with you today because we are profoundly sorry.”
Simple words spoken with great conviction — not a burdensome expectation, really.
Mike Goggin was assistant director for the InterFaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington for nine years and is now the regional director of the Ignatian Volunteer Corps.
Read it for yourself. Really, why can’t these clerics just say they’re sorry? Any thoughts? CM