Disgraced Catholic cardinal and abuser dead at 94

Former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who was defrocked from his position amid a child sex abuse scandal, died at 94 on Friday, according to several reports.

McCarrick, who was appointed as the archbishop of Washington, D.C. in 2001, died of old age in Missouri while suffering from dementia, according to The Pillar and National Catholic Reporter (NCR). The disgraced cardinal was found in a 2020 investigation by the Catholic Church to have sexually abused children since the 1990s.

The report also placed blame on Pope John Paul II for reportedly not taking seriously the allegations made against him amid his promotion to cardinal due to his prior friendship with McCarrick. John Paul II was allegedly warned in 1999 by then-New York Cardinal John O’Connor of McCarrick’s allegations.

The former cardinal was also allegedly known to invite seminarians to sleep with him in the same bed, the NCR reported.

The cardinal initially faced public allegations of sexual abuse and harassment in 2018, but maintained his innocence at the time.

“While shocked by the report, and while maintaining my innocence, I considered it essential that the charges be reported to the police, thoroughly investigated by an independent agency, and given to the Review Board of the Archdiocese of New York. I fully cooperated in the process,” McCarrick said at the time, according to The Pillar.

McCarrick was ordained a bishop in 1958 and became archbishop of Newark, New Jersey, in 1986 before his appointment to the Washington parish.

The most recent accusation against McCarrick was in 2021, which claimed that he sexually assaulted a teenage boy at a wedding reception in 1974. McCarrick also faced criminal charges for sexual abuse in Wisconsin, but the judge dropped the charges in 2024 due to the cardinal’s dementia precluding his eligibility to be tried, according to the NCR.

The Vatican Dicastery of Communications did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

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