The Vatican has defrocked a former US Cardinal for a catalogue of sexual crimes against young boys and teenagers. Theodore McCarrick, 88, is the first cardinal ever to be defrocked for sex abuse, making him the highest-ranking Catholic churchman to be laicized, as the process is called. It means he can no longer celebrate Mass or other sacraments, wear clerical vestments or be addressed by any religious title. Former US Cardinal Theodore McCarrick has been defrocked – becoming the highest ranking Catholic official to have been (Picture: EPA) The US Conference of Catholic Bishops said Pope Francis’s decision to defrock McCarrick was ‘a clear signal that abuse will not be tolerated’. He resigned from the Vatican’s College of Cardinals in July and was found guilty by a Vatican court of sexually abusing a teenager in January. exclusive Instagrammer accused in £4,000,000 forex 'scam' finally breaks silence One victim, James Grein, the son of a family friend of McCarrick’s, had testified to church officials that, among other abuses, he had repeatedly groped him during confession. Mr Grein said the abuse began when he was 11 and continued for decades. ‘Today I am happy that the pope believed me,’ he said in a statement issued through his lawyer. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops said Pope Francis’s decision to defrock McCarrick was ‘a clear signal that abuse will not be tolerated’ (Picture: EPA) Grein also expressed hope that McCarrick ‘will no longer be able to use the power of Jesus’ church to manipulate families and sexually abuse children.’ Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the bishops conference, said in a statement: ‘No bishop, no matter how influential, is above the law of the Church.’ Capitol riot probe commission blocked from being created by Republicans ‘For all those McCarrick abused, I pray this judgment will be one small step, among many, toward healing. ‘For us bishops, it strengthens our resolve to hold ourselves accountable to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am grateful to Pope Francis for the determined way he has led the Church’s response.’ The church has long been criticized for protecting predatory priests from the law – but the bishops’ statement appeared to signal a shift. Other victims who have been abused by Catholic priests have been asked to contact police. Got a story for Metro.co.uk? Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk. For more stories like this, check our news page.<doc-sep>Vatican City: Pope Francis has defrocked a former cardinal in a first for the Catholic church over accusations American Theodore McCarrick sexually abused a teenager 50 years ago, a Vatican statement said on Saturday. McCarrick, 88, who resigned from the Vatican's College of Cardinals in July, is the first cardinal ever to be defrocked for sex abuse. He was found guilty in January by a Vatican court for sexually abusing a teenager, a decision confirmed by the pope in February, with no further recourse, according to the statement. The announcement marks a spectacular fall from grace for the previously influential cardinal and comes ahead of a Vatican conference from February 21-24 bringing together bishops from around the world to discuss protecting children within the Church Sex abuse scandals around the globe, and most recently in the United States and Chile, have shaken the church, with Pope Francis promising a policy of "zero tolerance" even for high-ranking church members. McCarrick, former archbishop emeritus of Washington, was barred from practising as a priest in July last year, after which he resigned his honorary title of cardinal. He currently lives in Kansas. The Vatican in 2017 asked the New York archbishopric to investigate the powerful cardinal after a man accused McCarrick of having abused him in the 1970s. McCarrick was known for having sex with adult seminarians before he was accused of sexually abusing at least one teenager. Prosecutors in the US state of Pennsylvania last year found 300 priests were involved in child sexual abuse since the 1940s, crimes that were covered up by a string of bishops.<doc-sep>Pope Francis has defrocked a former cardinal in a first for the Catholic Church, over accusations American Theodore McCarrick sexually abused a teenager 50 years ago, the Vatican has said. Pope Francis has decided that the ruling, which followed an appeal by the man who was a power-broker as Archbishop of Washington DC from 2001 to 2006, was now final. A Vatican statement said his crimes were made more serious by "the aggravating factor of the abuse of power". McCarrick, who in July became the first Roman Catholic prelate in nearly 100 years to lose the title of cardinal, has now become the highest profile church figure to be dismissed from the priesthood in modern times. The decision comes as the Church is still grappling with a decades-long sexual abuse crisis that has exposed how predator priests were moved from parish to parish instead of being defrocked or turned over to civilian authorities in countries across the globe. With the ruling, Pope Francis appears to be sending a signal that even those in the highest echelons of the hierarchy will be held accountable. The ruling, made by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith three days ago, was announced ahead of next week's meeting at the Vatican between the heads of national Catholic churches to discuss the global abuse crisis. Defrocking means McCarrick can no longer call himself a priest or celebrate the sacraments, although he would be allowed to administer to a person on the verge of death in an emergency. The allegations against McCarrick, whose fall from grace stunned the US Church, date back to decades ago when he was still rising to the top of the hierarchy there. McCarrick, who has been living in seclusion in a remote friary in Kansas, has responded publicly to only one of the allegations, saying that he has "absolutely no recollection" of an alleged case of sexual abuse of a 16-year-old boy more than 50 years ago. Vatican spokesman Alessandro Gisotti said the ruling showed that "different treatment for bishops who have committed or covered up abuse in fact represents a form of clericalism that is no longer acceptable." Read more: Vatican asks US cardinal to cease public ministry over sex abuse allegation US cardinal resigns after 'credible' sex abuse allegations Pope Francis orders investigation of US bishop McCarrick was also found guilty of the separate crime of solicitation, which refers to when a priest uses the pretext of the sacrament of confession to commit an immoral act with a penitent. One of men who has claimed that McCarrick abused him when he was a boy said McCarrick, then a priest, touched his genitals during confession. Separately, several priests and ex-priests have come forward alleging McCarrick used his authority to coerce them to sleep with him when they were adult seminarians studying for the priesthood. McCarrick has not commented publicly on the allegations of misconduct with adults, which was an open secret in the US Church. Pope Francis ordered a "thorough study" last year of all documents in Holy See offices concerning McCarrick. The four US dioceses where he served - New York, Metuchen, Newark, and Washington DC - have launched independent investigations. The pope wanted the case completed before heads of national Catholic churches meet at the Vatican from February 21-24 to discuss the crisis, three sources said. The meeting offers a chance for him to respond to criticism from victims of abuse that he has stumbled in his handling of the crisis and has not done enough to make bishops accountable. McCarrick had already received one of the most severe punishments short of defrocking. When the pope accepted his resignation as cardinal last July, he also ordered him to refrain from public ministry and live in seclusion, prayer and penitence. The pope accepted the resignations of several bishops in Chile last year after investigations revealed decades of sexual abuse by clergy in their dioceses. In March 2015, Pope Francis allowed Keith O'Brien to keep the title of cardinal after the former Bishop of Edinburgh and former leader of the Catholic church in Scotland resigned over allegations of inappropriate sexual behaviour towards priests in the 1980s. The only previous case of a cardinal resigning came in 1927, when Pope Pius XI accepted the resignation of French cardinal Lois Billot, who had himself renounced his status for political reasons. Cardinals act as close papal advisors and can attend conclaves to elect new pontiffs if they are aged below 80. McCarrick had been one of the most prominent American cardinals active on the international stage. Although officially retired, McCarrick had continued to travel abroad regularly, including on human rights missions. McCarrick was ordained a priest in 1958 and rose through the ranks in the Archdiocese of New York before being installed as archbishop of Washington in 2001, a post he held until 2006. The claims against him were made public in June by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the current archbishop of New York. Dolan said an independent forensic agency "thoroughly investigated" the allegation. A review board that included jurists, law enforcement experts, parents, psychologists, a priest and a religious sister then "found the allegations credible and substantiated" and the Vatican ordered McCarrick to stop exercising his ministry. At the time, he released a statement maintaining his innocence but added that he "fully cooperated" in the investigation. Senior US church officials said they had received three allegations of McCarrick's sexual misconduct with adults decades ago, two of which resulted in settlements. The US Catholic website Crux quoted a man as accusing him of abuse in New York's St Patrick's Cathedral when he was a 16-year-old in the 1970s. Other cardinals caught up in scandal include Australia's top Catholic George Pell, number three in the Vatican. Pell faces prosecution in Australia for historical child sexual offences. Pell and Chilean Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz were both removed from the so-called C9 Council of Cardinals, an international advice body set up by Francis himself, the Vatican said in December.<doc-sep>Pope Francis has defrocked former U.S. cardinal Theodore McCarrick after Vatican officials found him guilty of soliciting for sex while hearing confession and of sexual crimes against minors and adults, the Holy See said Saturday. McCarrick, 88, is the highest-ranking Catholic churchman to be laicized, as the process is called. It means he can no longer celebrate Mass or other sacraments, wear clerical vestments or be addressed by any religious title. He is the first churchman who reached the rank of cardinal to be defrocked in the church's sex abuse scandals. The punishment for the once-powerful prelate, who had served as the archbishop of Washington, spent years in New Jersey dioceses and had been an influential fundraiser for the church, was announced five days before Francis leads an extraordinary gathering of bishops from around the world to help the church grapple with the crisis of sex abuse by clergy and the systematic coverups by church hierarchy. The decades-long scandals have shaken the faith of many Catholics and threaten Francis's papacy. The Vatican's press office said that on Jan. 11, the Holy See's doctrinal watchdog office, 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." Decision 'definitive' The officials "imposed on him the penalty of dismissal from the clerical state." The commandment cited is "You shall not commit adultery." McCarrick, when he was ordained a priest his native New York City in 1958, took a vow of celibacy, in accordance with church rules on priests. The Pope "has recognized the definitive nature of this decision made in accordance with [church] law, rendering it as res iudicata,"' the Vatican said, using the Latin phrase for admitting no further recourse. 'Time for us to cleanse the church' "Today I am happy that the Pope believed me," said one of McCarrick's chief accusers, James Grein. In a statement issued through his lawyer, Grein also expressed hope that McCarrick "will no longer be able to use the power of Jesus's church to manipulate families and sexually abuse children." James Grein says he was sexually abused for years by McCarrick. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post via AP) Grein had testified to church officials that, among other abuses, McCarrick had repeatedly groped him during confession. Saying it's "time for us to cleanse the church," Grein said pressure needs to be put on state attorneys general and senators to change the statute of limitations. "Hundreds of priests, bishops and cardinals are hiding behind man-made law," he said. No bishop 'above the law' Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, a U.S. church leader whose own credibility in handling clergy abuse cases has recently been questioned, issued a statement on Saturday calling the punishment of a once-powerful American prelate "a clear signal that abuse will not be tolerated." DiNardo says "no bishop, no matter how influential, is above the law of the church." McCarrick had appealed his penalty, but the doctrinal officials earlier this week rejected that, and he was notified of the decision on Friday, the Vatican announcement said. The archdiocese of Washington, D.C., where McCarrick was posted at the pinnacle of his clerical career, from 2001-2006, said in a statement it hoped that the Vatican decision "serves to help the healing process for survivors of abuse, as well as those who have experienced disappointment or disillusionment because of what former archbishop McCarrick has done." McCarrick, a one-time "prince of the church," as cardinals are known, becomes the highest-ranking churchman to be laicized, or dismissed from the clerical state. It marks a remarkable downfall for the globe-trotting powerbroker and influential church fundraiser who mingled with presidents and popes, but preferred to be called "Uncle Ted" by the young men he courted. The scandal swirling around McCarrick was even more damning to the church's reputation in the eyes of the faithful because it apparently was an open secret that he slept with adult seminarians. Vatican summit The Vatican summit, running Feb. 21-24, draws church leaders from around the world to talk about preventing abuse. It was called in part to respond to the McCarrick scandal as well as to the explosion of the abuse crisis in Chile and its escalation in the United States last year. Despite the apparent common knowledge in church circles of his sexual behaviour, McCarrick rose to the heights of church power. He even acted as the spokesperson for U.S. bishops when they enacted a "zero tolerance" policy against sexually abusive priests in 2002. Pope Francis, pictured late last year, removed McCarrick as a cardinal in July after a U.S. church investigation determined that an allegation he fondled a teenage altar boy in the 1970s was credible. (Max Rossi/Reuters) That perceived hypocrisy, coupled with allegations in the Pennsylvania grand jury report detailing decades of abuse and coverup in six dioceses, outraged many among the rank-and-file faithful who had trusted church leaders to reform how they handled sex abuse after 2002. Francis removed McCarrick as a cardinal in July after a U.S. church investigation determined that an allegation he fondled a teenage altar boy in the 1970s was credible. It was the first known allegation against McCarrick involving a minor — a far more serious offence than sleeping with adult seminarians. Francis implicated But Francis himself became implicated in the decade-long McCarrick coverup after a former Vatican ambassador to the U.S. accused the Pope of lifting sanctions on the cardinal imposed by Pope Benedict, despite being told of his penchant for young men. Francis hasn't responded to the claims. But he has ordered a limited Vatican investigation. The Vatican has acknowledged the outcome may produce evidence that mistakes were made, but said Francis would "follow the path of truth, wherever it may lead." Anne Barrett Doyle of BishopAccountability.org says, while his defrocking is significant, "most abusive bishops have escaped" defrocking. She says Francis should use the power of his office to laicize those bishops immediately and say "what he knew and when."<doc-sep>
Former US Cardinal Theodore McCarrick has been expelled from the Roman Catholic priesthood after he was found guilty of sexual crimes against minors and adults. Pope Francis decided the ruling, which followed an appeal by the man who was a power-broker as Archbishop of Washington DC from 2001 to 2006, was now final. A Vatican statement on Saturday said his crimes were made more serious by “the aggravating factor of the abuse of power”. McCarrick, who in July became the first Roman Catholic prelate in nearly 100 years to lose the title of cardinal, has now become the highest-profile church figure to be dismissed from the priesthood in modern times. The decision comes as the church is still grappling with a decades-long sexual abuse crisis that has exposed how predator priests were moved from parish to parish instead of being defrocked or turned over to civilian authorities in countries across the globe, including Australia. Fall from grace The ruling was made by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith three days ago. The allegations against McCarrick, whose fall from grace stunned the US church, date back to decades ago, when he was still rising to the top of the American hierarchy. One of his victims expressed relief that Pope Francis believed his accusations of years-long sex abuse. In a statement released by his lawyer on Saturday, James Grein said he participated in the church trial of McCarrick “with profound sadness”. Grein, the son of a friend of McCarrick, said that while he can’t regain his childhood, “today I am happy that the Pope believed me”. He accused McCarrick of sexually abusing him for about two decades from age 11, including during confession. Vatican spokesman Alessandro Gisotti said the ruling showed “different treatment for bishops who have committed or covered up abuse in fact represents a form of clericalism that is no longer acceptable”. McCarrick was also found guilty of the separate crime of solicitation, which refers to when a priest uses the pretext of the sacrament of confession to commit an immoral act with a penitent. One of men who has claimed that McCarrick abused him when he was a boy said McCarrick, then a priest, touched his genitals during confession. Separately, several priests and ex-priests have come forward alleging McCarrick used his authority to coerce them to sleep with him when they were adult seminarians studying for the priesthood. McCarrick, who has been living in seclusion in a remote friary in Kansas, has responded publicly to only one of the allegations, saying he has “absolutely no recollection” of an alleged case of sexual abuse of a 16-year-old boy more than 50 years ago. McCarrick has not commented publicly on the allegations of misconduct with adults, which was an open secret in the US Church. Francis ordered a “thorough study” last year of all documents in Holy See offices concerning McCarrick. The four US dioceses where he served – New York, Metuchen, Newark, and Washington DC – have launched independent investigations. The Pope wanted the case completed before heads of national Catholic churches meet at the Vatican from February 21-24 to discuss the crisis, three sources said. -AAP