Former Roman Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick pleaded not guilty Friday to sexually assaulting a 16-year-old boy. McCarrick is the only U.S. Catholic cardinal, current or former, ever to be charged with child sex crimes.
“McCarrick is the tip of the iceberg,” Terry McKiernan with Bishop Accountability said. “There are 46 bishops in the United States accused of child abuse. He’s just one of them. He’s the exception in a way that proves the rule. And there’s a lot more work to do.”
The video above shows there scene at the courthouse before and after McCarrick’s hearing.
According to court documents, McCarrick is facing three counts of indecent assault and batter on a person over 14 years of age. The alleged assault happened at a wedding reception in Massachusetts nearly 50 years ago.
The accuser, who was 16 at the time, claimed McCarrick said the accuser’s dad asked him to have a talk with the accuser because the boy was “being mischievous at home and not attending church.”
The accuser claims they took a walk around the college campus where the reception was happening, and McCarrick groped him before they went back to the party. According to the documents, the accuser said McCarrick also sexually assaulted him in a “coat room type closet” after they returned to the reception.
Since McCarrick wasn’t a Massachusetts resident at the time and had left the state, there is no statue of limitations in place. Which means McCarrick could face more charges.
In the documents, the accuser described other instances of sexual abuse by McCarrick over the years, including when the accuser was an adult.
“Today’s arraignment provides hope for many clergy sex abuse victims and survivors that justice will prevail, the truth to be told, and children will be kept safe,” Mitchell Garabedian, the accuser’s attorney, said. “My client, in coming forward, has shown an enormous amount of courage and is ready to see this trial through the end.”
After being ordained in New York City in 1958, McCarrick ascended the church ranks. He eventually became one of the most visible church officials in the U.S. He even served as the spokesman for fellow U.S. bishops when they enacted a “zero tolerance” policy against sexually abusive priests in 2002.
McCarrick’s fall began in 2017 when a former altar boy came forward to report the priest groped him when he was a teenager in New York.
In 2018, the Archdiocese of New York announced McCarrick had been removed from ministry after finding the allegation to be “credible and substantiated”. In addition, two New Jersey dioceses revealed they settled claims of sexual misconduct against McCarrick in the past involving adults.
Pope Francis defrocked McCarrick in 2019 after a Vatican investigation determined he sexually abused minors, as well as adults.
The former cardinal did not speak at Friday’s hearing. His bail was set at $5,000, and he was ordered to stay away from the victim and have no contact with minors.
His attorney Katherine Zimmerl said they are “looking forward to addressing the allegations in court”. Another hearing is set for October 28th.
