He ascended to the highest levels of the Roman Catholic Church before allegations of misconduct in 2018, and an investigation led Pope Francis to strip him of his title and priesthood.
Theodore E. McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington and the highest American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church to be accused of sexually abusing minors and seminarians — a charge that stripped him of his ministry, his place in the College of Cardinals and his priesthood, reducing him to the status of a layman — has died. He was 94.
Cardinal Robert W. McElroy, archbishop of Washington, confirmed the death in a statement, which provided no further details. A statement by the Vatican said he died on Thursday in Missouri, where he had been reported to be living.
The accusations against Cardinal McCarrick, who had helped shape many of his church’s policies for responding to its sexual abuse crisis, were shocking but hardly incredible when they came to light in 2018, after a church investigation concluded that he had molested a teenage altar server in 1971 and 1972 while he was monsignor in New York City. Thousands of priests before him had faced charges of abuse, and the church had paid victims hundreds of millions in settlements. In 2012, Cardinal Bernard F. Law, the archbishop of Boston and America’s senior prelate, resigned amid revelations that he had protected pedophile priests for years.
Although Cardinal McCarrick promptly resigned his ministry “at the direction of Pope Francis,” church officials said, he contended that he was innocent, saying he had no recollection of the reported abuse. He cooperated with the church’s inquiry and did not contest its findings. “I am sorry for the pain the person who brought the charges has gone through, as well as for the scandal such charges cause our people,” he said.
Other sexual misconduct allegations against him soon emerged. Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin of Newark said that during a McCarrick ministry in Metuchen, N.J., in the 1980s, when Cardinal McCarrick was bishop of the diocese there, three adults accused him of improprieties that led to two financial settlements. And former priests said he had had sexual contact with dozens of New Jersey seminarians, who called him “Uncle Ted.”
