Theodore McCarrick will not be tried in a case of sexual abuse that was reported in 2021.
A U.S. judge has declared that the 93-year-old ex-cardinal is not competent to stand the trial as the medical expert determined McCarrick has dementia. He was supposed to stand trial for the accusation of molesting a 16-year-old boy in 1974. McCarrick has always maintained his innocence.
As a former cardinal and archbishop of Washington D.C., McCarrick held heavy influence within the Church in the United States and in the Vatican.
Pope Francis expelled McCarrick from the priesthood in 2019, after the Doctrine of the Faith declared him guilty of sexual crimes with both minors and adults.
During this time, the Vatican also conducted a study that exposed the control structures which allowed McCarrick to keep his abuses hidden while he climbed the hierarchical Church ladder.
POPE FRANCIS
November 11, 2020
Yesterday, the report on the painful case of former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick was published. I renew my closeness to the victims of all abuses and the Church's commitment to eradicate this evil.
As the only former or current U.S. cardinal in history to face sexual abuse charges, the situation of Theodore McCarrick was one of the most followed Vatican cases in recent decades.
JRB
TR: AT
