CNA Staff, Apr 4, 2025 / 15:47 pm (CNA).
Theodore McCarrick, the disgraced former cardinal and archbishop of Washington who spent decades moving in the highest circles in the Church and was later found guilty in a Vatican investigation of sexually abusing minors and adults, has died at age 94.
A spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Washington on Friday shared a statement with CNA in which Cardinal Robert McElroy confirmed McCarrick’s passing. McCarrick, who was reportedly suffering with dementia, had been living in a facility in rural Missouri.
“Today I learned of the death of Theodore McCarrick, former archbishop of Washington. At this moment I am especially mindful of those who he harmed during the course of his priestly ministry. Through their enduring pain, may we remain steadfast in our prayers for them and for all victims of sexual abuse,” McElroy said.
Ordained a priest in 1958, the New York-born McCarrick rose through the ranks of the American Church throughout the mid- to late-20th century. During his episcopal tenure he was an auxiliary bishop of New York, then led the Diocese of Metuchen, New Jersey; the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey; and later Washington, D.C.
He was a leading participant in the development of the 2002 Dallas Charter and the USCCB Essential Norms, which established procedures for handling allegations of sexual abuse concerning priests.
In 2018, reports of McCarrick’s abuse, grooming, and harassment of seminarians burst publicly onto the scene amid a nationwide reckoning on clerical sexual abuse.
A Vatican investigation in 2019 found McCarrick guilty of numerous instances of sexual abuse, and Pope Francis laicized him in February of that year. The year after, the Vatican published a lengthy report on McCarrick examining in detail the “institutional knowledge and decision-making” regarding the former cardinal and how he continued to be promoted despite rumors of misconduct.
In addition to the Vatican investigations, McCarrick faced numerous criminal charges. However, a Massachusetts state district judge ruled in 2023 that McCarrick was not competent to stand trial on the criminal sexual abuse charges brought against him.
A criminal case against McCarrick in Wisconsin was suspended in January 2024 after a psychologist hired by the court found McCarrick was not competent to stand trial.
This is a developing story.
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He needs our prayers.
Yes he does. Thank you.
One down.
I pray this evening for his intention. We ought to commend his soul to the mercy of Almighty God.
Amen.
“At this moment I am especially mindful of those who he harmed during the course of his priestly ministry. Through their enduring pain, may we remain steadfast in our prayers for them and for all victims of sexual abuse,” McElroy said.
Can we also have a few prayers for the victims, whose victimization you aided and abetted Cardinal McElroy, by protecting the perpetrators?
They are all alike, that is why so many people are leaving the church and taking the kids out of the pedophile priests. All priests are guilty. Even at the top’
May God have mercy on his soul for all the horrible things he did and perpetrated on those innocents!
He showed zero remorse or repentance for his sins. He’s definitely in Hell.
Indeed, the last will be first, perhaps-just perhaps. 🙏
What a vile comment. Did McCarrick confess, repent, and make restitution for his multitude of sins? Did he repent for sexually assaulting people and for protecting those who committed similar sins? Why would you assume that mercy is available to the unrepentant? Why are you defending sexual predators?
There are the Epstein files and the Catholic Church has the McCarrick files.
Finally justice will prevail.
My Jesus, Mercy.
Huge sigh of relief in upper echelons of the Church who never performed a public trial, and now no possibility of any manner of trial whether civil or Church, no chance of names being named, documents demanded for public disclosure….and no justice on earth for those manipulated and harmed….all swept under the rug.
The entire matter has been referred to a Higher Court.
Hopefully he will be refused a Church funeral due to his crimes, like John Gotti was.
The McCarrick case remains one of the most disgraceful episodes in U.S Church history.
It is not just his sins, but the massive cover-up which went on for years. Many Bishops,
cardinals, popes turned a blind eye to disturbing reports of his behavior and
permitted him to assault more victims. The eventual Vatican report let most of
these people off the hook including the present pope.
McCarrick is not the only one who should have done penance.
No mention of any sincere repentance on his part. The sovereign and Holy God from all eternity past predestined him for dishonorable use in this life and now it’s unimaginable torment for eternity. Read all of Romans 9 Good reminder and wake up call for many in this church.
The Mind of McCarrick remains in his fellow cultists of the spiritual abyss, including Cardinal McElroy, and Cardinal Cupich, and Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark, and Cardinal Farrell in Rome (to dismantle the Family). And lest we forget Cardinal Wuerl in Rome (Congregation for Bishops) who advises the McCarrick-Pontiff Francis on the appointments of more McCarrick cultists to Bishops in the US and around the world.
Their cult of apostasy, silence, abuse, corruption and contempt remains, and continues as they walk the earth, all the days remaining before their journey to the grave, with McCarrick, the unrepentant sociopath and-for-decades-celebrity-Bishop of and by and for the USCCB