Francisco expelled 88-year-old ex-cardinal from priesthood for sexually abusing minors

Pope Francis expelled former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick Priesthood, after verifying that the information that accused him of badual abuse on minors is true. The sentence, called "reduction to the lay state", is the most serious for a clergyman and can only be overcome by excommunication.

The measurement is taken just one week before the start of the antipederastia at the summit convened by Francisco at the Vaticanand in which the presidents of episcopal conferences around the world will meet to try to give a firm and uniform response, before the scandals of abuse against minors and concealment of the Catholic Church of the five continents.

The Pope's decision comes after the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has finished its work. investigation, also ordered by the Argentine pontiff, considering the former ex-cardinal culprit – he had dispossessed his post last July – of mistreating a 16-year-old boy while he was a priest in New York in the early 1970s.

The charges were made public in June by the current Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan. He added that an independent forensic agency had investigated these allegations. A review panel, consisting of legal experts, psychologists, parents and a priest, discovered the allegations. "credible and corroborated".

McCarrick became a priest in 1958 and then worked in New York before becoming Archbishop of Washington from 2001 to 2006. Although he had officially retired, he continued to attend demonstrations at the University of New York. alien, including those dealing with human rights.

Since then, several other men have reported that McCarrick forced them to have bad with him in a beach house in New Jersey while studying for priesthood as adult seminarians. One of the people claimed to have been badaulted while he was still a minor. This would have been hidden by the American Catholic Church.

During the process, the old man lived in a cell of a Kansas monastery, wearing a the life of retirement, prayer and penance, as the pope had ordered.

Once the sentence is confirmed, McCarrick will no longer be able to administer the sacraments, to introduce himself or to disguise himself as a priest, nor to receive any financial allowance from any ecclesiastical institution. The "McCarrick" case was used by ultra-conservative sectors in August to suggest that Francisco was aware of the crimes of the former cardinal and that he had done nothing.

The accusation came from former US Minister Carlo Maria Viganò, who wrote an open letter accusing the pope of not acting and demanding his resignation. Subsequently, it was found that all the accusations of Viganò were false.

S.D.