Disgraced former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick has died at age 94

WASHINGTON — Theodore McCarrick, a once-powerful Catholic cardinal who was defrocked by Pope Francis in 2019 after a Vatican investigation decided he sexually molested adults and youngsters, died Friday, in keeping with Archbishop of Washington Robert McElroy. McCarrick was 94.

The McCarrick scandal created a disaster of credibility for the church, primarily as a result of there was proof Vatican and U.S. church leaders knew he slept with seminarians however turned a blind eye as McCarrick rose to the highest of the U.S. church as an adept fundraiser who suggested three popes.

The Vatican’s report on its investigation put the lion’s share of blame on a useless saint: Pope John Paul II, who appointed McCarrick archbishop of Washington, D.C., in 2000, regardless of having commissioned an inquiry that confirmed he slept with seminarians.

The report discovered that John Paul believed McCarrick’s last-minute, handwritten denial: “I’ve made errors and will have typically lacked in prudence, however within the seventy years of my life I’ve by no means had sexual relations with any particular person, male or feminine, younger or outdated, cleric or lay,” McCarrick wrote.