Vatican denies covering sexual abuse of ex-Cardinal McCarrick

The Holy See on Tuesday denied having passed in silence the sexual acts of former American cardinal Theodore McCarrick, defrocked late for child abuse, admitting however in a report to have made errors on the basis of inaccurate and incomplete information .

In the 450 pages of the report, fed by 90 interviews and the consultation of the archives which required two years of work, the Holy See considers in particular that several American bishops have long provided “inaccurate and incomplete” information on his sexual “misconduct”.

The conclusions, in ten pages, will disappoint all those who hoped for shattering revelations about an omerta scandal from the highest hierarchy of the Church, including three successive popes. 

"No influence on the decisions" of the Holy See

Regarding McCarrick's brilliant career, Vatican number two Cardinal Pietro Parolin emphasizes that no Church decision-making procedure "is free from error" because it is dependent on "omissions" with serious consequences of its members.

Rumors of his invitations to young seminarians and adult priests to share his bed, released in the 90s, the warning of a cardinal reporting allegations of abuse of a priest, will not have prevented the influential prelate to be appointed archbishop of Washington at the end of 2000 and to be created cardinal in the process, coronation of a long career decided by the Polish Pope John Paul II.

After an investigation in Rome evoking the risk of a scandal, the old pope had decided to trust McCarrick who claimed his innocence.

The ambitious archbishop had indeed sent a letter to his private secretary, Stanislaw Dziwisz, in which he assured that he had "never had sexual relations with any person, man or woman, young or old, cleric or layman".

The Rome investigation included retrospectively "incomplete" information, leading to "underestimates", summarizes Andrea Tornielli, editorial director of the Holy See's "ministry" of communication.

McCarrick's talent for raising funds for the Church from wealthy American donors, as well as his habit of giving gifts, "never influenced significant decisions made by the Holy See in his regard," the report states. .

The Image of the Tainted Church

More credible accusations of abuse of adults then arise in 2005. The brand new German Pope Benedict XVI then asks the Archbishop of Washington to retire the following year, at over 75 years of age.

In the absence of minor victims, the Holy See does not open a trial.

Old Cardinal McCarrick, already retired, will not fall from his pedestal until after a first complaint for sexual assault arrived in 2017, filed by a man who was 16 at the time of the facts in New York in the 70s. An investigation is then launched with the approval of Pope Francis.

Theodore McCarrick will have his cardinal title withdrawn in the summer of 2018, before being defrocked in early 2019, an almost unprecedented sanction.

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In the fall of 2018, Pope Francis had promised to deliver a "thorough" investigation into this influential prelate who was bishop of New York, Metuchen and Newark (New Jersey).

Since then, associations for the defense of victims of sexual abuse by priests have not ceased to demand its conclusions.

These are trying to clear customs the Argentine Pope elected in 2013: he is certainly aware of the allegations of "immoral behavior with adults", but does not go back on decisions taken before him, which were not "sanctions" but simple "recommendations" made to the cardinal to live discreetly.

The report nonetheless undermines the image of the Church, through the testimonies of many people who have had physical contact with the fallen American prelate, describing "sexual abuse or assault, unwanted sexual activities , intimate physical contact and sharing a bed without physical contact ".