U.S. court records show that Former U.S. cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who was removed from office after a Vatican investigation confirming sexual harassment of adults and children, is now accused of sexually assaulting a teenage boy at a 1974 wedding reception in Massachusetts.
Theodore McCarrick
Mitchell Garabedian, a prominent lawyer representing the victims, said McCarrick was the first cardinal in the United States to be criminally charged for sexual offences against minors. He said in an email: "It takes great courage for victims of sexual abuse to report sexual abuse to investigators and to move forward with criminal proceedings. Please allow the facts to be presented, the law to be applied, and a fair verdict to be rendered. ”
According to documents filed Wednesday in Dedham District Court in Massachusetts, McCarrick faces three counts of indecent assault and assault on people over the age of 14. McCarrick's lawyer, Barry Coburn, said they "look forward to resolving the case in court" and declined to comment further.
According to court records, the victim said McCarrick's abuse of him began when he was a young boy. The man told investigators in January that McCarrick was close to his family and would hold wedding mass, baptisms and funerals for them.
At his brother's wedding reception at Wellesley College in June 1974, McCarrick told the then-16-year-old that his father wanted him to talk to him because the boy was "mischievous at home and didn't go to church," the man said. The two then walked around campus, and McCarrick touched him before they returned to the wedding scene.
Authorities wrote in court documents that the man claimed McCarrick also sexually assaulted him in the cloakroom after they returned to the reception desk.
Before leaving the room, McCarrick also reportedly told him to "say 3 times our Father and 1 Blessed Mary, or 1 time our Father and 3 Times Toys Mary so that God can atone for your sins". In addition, the man described mcCarrick's other cases of sexual abuse over the years, including the man's continued sexual abuse as an adult.
Authorities began an investigation into Gaabedian after he sent a letter to the district attorney's office accusing McCarrick of abuse, according to court records.
Although McCarrick is not a Massachusetts resident and has left the state, the lawsuit against him is beyond the statute of limitations. But authorities say McCarrick can still be charged in the current situation. McCarrick, who now lives in Missouri, has been ordered to appear in Court in Massachusetts on Sept. 3, with the hearing scheduled for Aug. 26.
McCarrick, 91, was fired by Pope Francis in 2019 after a Vatican investigation confirmed decades of rumors that he was a "sexual predator." The case created a credibility crisis for the church, as the Vatican has received reports since 1999 that McCarrick's behavior was problematic, but he has since become an influential cardinal and an emissary of the Holy See's "soft diplomacy."