Disgraced Ex-DC Cardinal Theodore McCarrick Dead At 94

WASHINGTON, DC — Theodore McCarrick, a former Catholic cardinal for the Archdiocese of Washington who was defrocked in 2019 following a slew of sexual abuse allegations, has died, according to an Associated Press report. He was 94.

Archbishop of Washington Robert McElroy issued a statement Friday confirming McCarrick's death a day earlier but provided no details. His statement focused on those McCarrick abused.

“At this moment I am especially mindful of those who he harmed during the course of his priestly ministry," McElroy said. "Through their enduring pain, may we remain steadfast in our prayers for them and for all victims of sexual abuse.”

In recent court proceedings, it was disclosed that McCarrick had been diagnosed with dementia. He had been living in Missouri, and Vatican News reported he died there.

In February 2019, the Vatican stripped McCarrick of his role in the church, prohibiting him from any type of priestly ministry, after he was found guilty by church officials of soliciting sex during confession and abusing his power by committing “sins” with minors and adults.

A new spate of sexual abuse allegations followed his resignation, including claims he sexually abused two boys and sexually harassed seminarians.

The Washington Post reported new accusations that McCarrick abused at least seven boys from about 1970 until 1990; many of the boys traveled with the then-archbishop to fundraisers.

McCarrick, who was the archbishop of Washington from 2000 to 2006, was one of the highest-ranking U.S. church officials accused in a sexual abuse scandal that has seen thousands of priests implicated. He traveled widely, was a gifted fundraiser and spoke multiple languages.

The Archdiocese of Washington includes the District of Columbia and the five surrounding Maryland counties of St. Mary’s, Charles, Calvert, Prince George’s and Montgomery.

McCarrick was also the founding Bishop of Metuchen, New Jersey, and was named fourth Archbishop of Newark in 1986 by then Pope John Paul II. He remained in this position until he was named archbishop of Washington.

A number of sexual misconduct allegations come from McCarrick’s time in New Jersey.

A former Tenafly man, known only by his first name, James, recalled the abuse he endured that started when he was 11 and McCarrick was 39, The New York Times and NorthJersey.com reported in 2018.

James was baptized by McCarrick in June 1958, just two weeks after his ordination as priest of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Teanfly. It was the first baptism McCarrick performed.

"He had chosen me to be his special boy," James told the Times. "If I go back to my family, they tell me that it's good for you to be with him. And if you go to try to tell somebody, they'll say 'I think you are mistaken.'"

The details of the alleged abuse include McCarrick giving James alcohol and sleeping naked with him, NorthJersey.com reported.

The McCarrick scandal created a crisis of credibility for the church, primarily because there was evidence that Vatican and U.S. church leaders knew he slept with seminarians but turned a blind eye as McCarrick rose to the top of the U.S. church as an adept fundraiser who advised three popes.

The Vatican's report on its investigation put the lion’s share of blame on a dead saint: Pope John Paul II, who appointed McCarrick archbishop of Washington, despite having commissioned an inquiry that confirmed he slept with seminarians.

The report found that John Paul believed McCarrick’s last-minute, handwritten denial in which he wrote: “I have made mistakes and may have sometimes lacked in prudence, but in the seventy years of my life I have never had sexual relations with any person, male or female, young or old, cleric or lay."

Over several decades, bishops, cardinals and popes dismissed or downplayed reports of McCarrick’s misconduct with young men as he rose through the ranks to become a cardinal and archbishop, according to the investigation.

The report contained heartbreaking testimony from people who tried to raise the alarm about McCarrick’s inappropriate behavior, including with children, in the mid-1980s. It drew on documents from Vatican departments, U.S. dioceses and seminaries and the Vatican’s U.S. Embassy. Investigators interviewed 90 people, including McCarrick’s victims, former seminarians and priests, and officials from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, responded to McCarrick’s death, expressing frustration that the ex-cardinal, although defrocked, never stood trial for “the vast harm he inflicted."

“McCarrick may be dead, but his many victims are not,” said Peter Isely, a founding member of SNAP. “We are still here, still living with the harm he caused — and with the church’s failure to stop him. ”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.