The Vatican has defrocked former US Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, making him the highest ranking Catholic to be dismissed from the priesthood in modern times.
The move, which comes after Vatican officials found him guilty of sexual offences against adults and minors, means McCarrick, the former Archbishop of Washington, DC, can no longer celebrate Mass, wear clerical vestments or call himself a priest.
In its statement, the Vatican said the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith had found McCarrick guilty of “solicitation in the sacrament of confession, and sins against the Sixth Commandment with minors and adults, with the aggravating factor of the abuse of power” and imposed “the penalty of dismissal from the clerical state”. The sixth commandment forbids adultery.
Pope Francis accepted McCarrick’s resignation from the College of Cardinals in July last year after a church investigation found an allegation made against the then cardinal concerning the abuse of a male teenager in the 1970s was “credible and substantiated”.
The Vatican said McCarrick, now 88, was notified of the decision on 15th February and that the Pope had “recognised the definitive nature of this decision made in accord with law, rendering it a res iudicata (ie, admitting of no further recourse)”.
The move comes ahead of a four day summit of Catholic bishops from around the world this week to consider the issue of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church.
