Pope Francis, in a First, Dismisses U.S. Cardinal From the Priesthood
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Decision to defrock Theodore McCarrick comes ahead of a Vatican summit on sex abuse next week.
The Vatican found former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington guilty of sexual abuse of minors and sexual misconduct with adults, and dismissed him from the priesthood, completing an astonishing fall from grace for a man who was once one of the most powerful figures in the U.S. Catholic Church.
The decision makes the 88-year-old the first U.S. cardinal—and possibly the first ever globally—to be defrocked.
The verdict is unlikely to quell the repercussions of the McCarrick case, which has prompted renewed scrutiny of the Catholic hierarchy’s record, including that of Pope Francis himself, on dealing with abuse, and calls for more accountability of bishops.
Major questions that remain unresolved by the former cardinal’s defrocking include how he rose to power under Pope John Paul II despite widespread rumors about his sexual misconduct with adult seminarians and priests, and how much Pope Francis knew about that history before he finally took disciplinary action.
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