About Theodore McCarrick
Theodore Edgar McCarrick (July 7, 1930 – April 3, 2025) was an American former Catholic prelate who was dismissed and laicized by Pope Francis in 2019 after being convicted of sexual misconduct in a canonical trial. Prior to his dismissal, he served as a bishop and cardinal, holding the positions of Archbishop of Newark from 1986 to 2000 and Archbishop of Washington from 2001 to 2006. Ordained a priest in 1958, McCarrick became an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of New York in 1977. He then became Bishop of Metuchen in 1981. From 1986 to 2000, he served as Archbishop of Newark. He was appointed Archbishop of Washington in 2000 and made a cardinal in 2001. A prolific fundraiser, he was connected to prominent politicians and was considered a power broker in Washington, D.C. Within the church, McCarrick was generally regarded as a champion of progressive Catholics. McCarrick was accused of engaging in sexual misconduct with adult male seminarians. Multiple reports about his alleged misconduct were made to American bishops and the Holy See, but McCarrick vehemently denied the allegations to the Vatican. After a credible allegation of repeated sexual misconduct towards boys and seminarians was lodged with the Archdiocese of New York, McCarrick was removed from public ministry in 2018. The following month, The New York Times published a story detailing a pattern of sexual abuse of male seminarians and minors by McCarrick, leading him to resign from the College of Cardinals. After a church investigation and trial, McCarrick was found guilty of sexual crimes against adults and minors and abuse of power and was dismissed from the clerical state in 2019. He was the most senior church official in modern times to be laicized, and his was the first known case of a cardinal resigning from the College of Cardinals and being laicized for sexual abuse. McCarrick's case sparked demands for accountability and reform in the Catholic Church. Pope Francis ordered "a thorough study" of the Vatican's records on McCarrick "to ascertain all the relevant facts, to place them in their historical context and to evaluate them objectively". The study was published by the Secretariat of State in 2020. On November 19, 1981, McCarrick was appointed the first bishop of the Diocese of Metuchen, New Jersey. In 2019, McCarrick was dismissed and laicized by Pope Francis after being convicted of sexual misconduct in a canonical trial.
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