Theodore McCarrick

Who Theodore McCarrick Was

Theodore Edgar McCarrick was an American Catholic bishop who rose to become archbishop of Washington and a cardinal, and who was dismissed from the clerical state in February 2019 after a Vatican penal process found him guilty of sexually abusing minors and adults and of soliciting sex in the sacrament of confession. He was born in New York City in 1930, ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of New York in 1958, made an auxiliary bishop of New York in 1977, the first bishop of Metuchen in New Jersey in 1981, archbishop of Newark in 1986, archbishop of Washington in 2000, and a cardinal in February 2001. He died in April 2025 at the age of 94.

The case matters beyond one man because of a second document. On 10 November 2020 the Secretariat of State published the Report on the Holy See's Institutional Knowledge and Decision-Making Related to Former Cardinal Theodore Edgar McCarrick (1930 to 2017), commissioned by Pope Francis. It is a Vatican account of what Church authorities were told about McCarrick, when they were told, what they did, and why. Almost everything on this page about Rome's internal handling comes from that report, and where the record is open or contested this page says so.

The Rise: Metuchen, Newark, Washington

McCarrick's career moved upward at almost every stage for forty years. After ordination in 1958 he studied and taught, served as an administrator at the Catholic University of Puerto Rico in the 1960s, returned to New York, and worked as a secretary to Cardinal Terence Cooke, the kind of post that puts a priest in the room where appointments are discussed. Ordination as an auxiliary bishop of New York followed in 1977.

Metuchen and Newark

In 1981 he was named the first bishop of the newly created Diocese of Metuchen, and in 1986 archbishop of Newark, one of the largest sees in the United States. He held Newark for fourteen years. Both dioceses later disclosed that they had received complaints of sexual misconduct by McCarrick with adult men, seminarians and young priests, and that settlements had been reached in the mid-2000s. Those disclosures were made publicly by the dioceses themselves in 2018.

Washington and the red hat

In November 2000 John Paul II named him archbishop of Washington, and he was installed in January 2001. The following month he was created a cardinal. He retired from the see in 2006, having passed the customary retirement age, and remained a cardinal, a resident of the archdiocese and a highly visible figure in Rome and abroad for another twelve years.

Dates of appointment and resignation follow the Holy See Press Office bulletins and the biographical section of the 2020 report. The 2018 and 2019 steps follow the statements issued by the Archdiocese of New York, the Holy See Press Office and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

What He Was Known For Publicly

For most of his career McCarrick's public reputation was that of a capable, charming and tireless churchman. He was known as a fundraiser who could open doors, a traveller who worked in dozens of countries, a voice on immigration and international relief, and a bishop comfortable with politicians, journalists and donors. He served on public bodies concerned with religious freedom abroad, took part in Vatican diplomatic errands, and was a frequent presence in American news coverage of the Church.

That profile is part of the story. A man who raises money, who is liked by people whose opinion carries weight, and who is useful to institutions, is a man whose accusers have a steeper hill to climb. The 2020 report describes credible reports being weighed against a reputation, and the reputation frequently winning. The pattern is familiar from other institutions, and the Church has no exemption from it.

The nickname and the beach house

McCarrick was widely called Uncle Ted by seminarians. The report and subsequent reporting describe a beach house in New Jersey where he invited seminarians and young priests to stay, with more guests than beds, so that one of them shared his room. Former seminarians who later spoke publicly described this as a routine and understood as a test of whether a man was willing to please him. The report treats these accounts as reports received by Church authorities over many years and records how each was handled.

How the Case Broke in 2018

The case became public in June 2018, when the Archdiocese of New York announced that an allegation that McCarrick had sexually abused a teenage altar server in the early 1970s had been found credible and substantiated by its independent review board, and that the Holy See had directed him to cease public ministry. Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, made the announcement. McCarrick said in a statement that he had no recollection of the alleged abuse and that he maintained his innocence, while accepting the decision of the Holy See.

What the dioceses disclosed next

Within days the Dioceses of Metuchen and Newark stated that they had received allegations that McCarrick had engaged in sexual misconduct with adults, that those allegations had come from former seminarians or priests, and that settlements had been reached in the mid-2000s. This was the first time most Catholics learned that complaints about a serving cardinal had been settled quietly years before.

Others came forward

Further accounts followed in mainstream reporting, including from men who had been seminarians in New Jersey. James Grein, who chose to identify himself publicly and gave interviews and testimony in his own name, said that McCarrick had abused him from childhood, beginning in the 1960s, as a friend of his family, and that some of the abuse occurred in connection with confession. The canonical finding of solicitation in confession in 2019 corresponds to that category of accusation. Other complainants have not been named publicly and are not named here.

Removal, Resignation and Laicization

Three formal steps followed the June 2018 announcement, each heavier than the last. Removal from public ministry came first, imposed by the Holy See when the New York allegation was found credible. On 28 July 2018 the Holy See announced that Pope Francis had accepted McCarrick's resignation from the College of Cardinals, ordered him to observe a life of prayer and penance in seclusion until the canonical process was complete, and suspended him from the exercise of any public ministry. Resignation from the College of Cardinals is rare. It removed his vote in a papal conclave and his standing as an adviser to the pope.

The penal process and the verdict

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith conducted an administrative penal process, a procedure used when the facts are sufficiently clear that a full judicial trial is not required, and which still allows the accused to present a defence and to appeal. In February 2019 the Holy See announced the outcome: McCarrick was found guilty of solicitation in the sacrament of confession and of sins against the Sixth Commandment with minors and with adults, with the aggravating factor of abuse of power. The penalty was dismissal from the clerical state. His appeal was rejected and the decision was declared final, with no further recourse available.

What laicization does and does not mean

Dismissal from the clerical state removes a man's right to exercise ministry, to present himself as a cleric, and to hold any Church office. Catholic teaching holds that ordination leaves a permanent character on the soul, so the Church does not claim to undo the ordination itself. A dismissed cleric may still validly absolve a person in danger of death, which is a provision for the dying rather than any restoration of standing. What the penalty removes is every faculty, title, office and support that the Church gives a priest.

Dismissal from the clerical state is rarely imposed at all, and its imposition on a cardinal drew worldwide attention. The announcement came days before a summit of the presidents of the world's bishops' conferences convened in Rome to address the protection of minors.

What the 2020 Report Is

The 2020 report is a Vatican document about the Vatican. Its full title is the Report on the Holy See's Institutional Knowledge and Decision-Making Related to Former Cardinal Theodore Edgar McCarrick (1930 to 2017), it was prepared by the Secretariat of State at the direction of Pope Francis, who ordered the study in October 2018, and it was published on 10 November 2020. It runs to hundreds of pages and quotes internal correspondence, nunciature files, and interviews with witnesses in the United States, Rome and elsewhere.

What kind of document it is

The report is an institutional narrative rather than a criminal investigation or a canonical judgment. It does not decide guilt, since the canonical verdict had already been handed down in 2019, and it does not compel anyone. What it does is set out, decade by decade, what information reached which office and what was done with it. Because it is published by the Holy See and quotes the Holy See's own files, it can be cited as a Vatican source for its contents, and that is how this page uses it.

Its limits, stated plainly

Several limits are worth naming. The report relies in part on the memories of witnesses recalling events decades old. It was produced by the institution it examines, which is a genuine constraint on any such document. Its focus is decision-making in Rome, so it is not a survey of every allegation or a full account of what individual victims suffered. Some who read it, including survivors and their advocates, argued that it distributed responsibility unevenly and treated some officials more gently than others. The document itself is the best evidence for what it does and does not settle.

What the Report Found About the Early Warnings

The report finds that reports about McCarrick's behaviour with adult seminarians and young priests reached Church authorities from the 1980s onward, and that they were treated as rumour or as behaviour to be corrected quietly. Accounts of him sharing a bed with seminarians at the beach house circulated among priests in New Jersey and reached bishops. The report describes these as reports of imprudent conduct in the language used at the time, a framing that made the matter look like poor judgment rather than abuse of authority.

The anonymous letters of the early 1990s

In 1992 and 1993 anonymous letters accusing McCarrick of abusing minors were sent to American bishops and to the apostolic nunciature. The report records that these letters were not corroborated at the time and were treated as unsubstantiated, and it notes that the severity and the anonymity of the claims contributed to their being discounted. No investigation followed that would have tested them.

Who wrote and who received

The report also records named warnings. Fr Boniface Ramsey, who had taught at the seminary in Newark and who has spoken publicly about this in his own name for years, raised his concerns about McCarrick with the apostolic nuncio in 2000 and later wrote to Vatican officials. The report addresses how his communications were handled and acknowledges that at least one of them went without a substantive reply. Several other priests and lay people raised concerns through diocesan channels.

Why nothing stopped him

Three mechanisms recur in the report's account of the early years. First, complaints concerned adults, and the Church's procedures at the time were built around minors, so a complaint about a seminarian fell into a gap. Second, seminarians and young priests depended on McCarrick for ordination, assignment and advancement, which made complaining costly. Third, the information that reached Rome passed through people who either did not know the whole picture or did not pass on what they knew.

What the Report Found About the Washington Appointment

The 2000 appointment to Washington is the hinge of the report. When the see fell vacant, McCarrick was a candidate, and Cardinal John O'Connor of New York wrote to the apostolic nuncio in 1999 opposing the promotion, setting out the allegations that McCarrick had shared a bed with adult seminarians and warning of the scandal that would follow if they became public. The report finds that John Paul II was informed and that the appointment was set aside as a result.

The denial letter

The report then records a letter McCarrick wrote on 6 August 2000 to Bishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, the pope's private secretary, in which he denied that he had ever had sexual relations with any person, male or female, young or old. The report concludes that John Paul II's eventual decision to appoint him to Washington in November 2000 was likely influenced by his belief in that denial, and by the pope's own experience in Poland, where accusations of immorality had been used by the communist authorities to discredit clergy.

The inaccurate advice

The report also finds that inquiries made of American bishops before the appointment produced inaccurate and incomplete information, and that three of the New Jersey bishops asked gave the Holy See accounts that understated what was known. The report attributes the appointment to that combination: a denial believed, and advice that was wrong.

The report makes no finding of wrongdoing by John Paul II. Our page on John Paul II covers the criticism of his record on abuse and how the report bears on his canonization, and this page does not repeat that discussion.

The account in this section follows the 2020 report's own narrative of the 1999 and 2000 correspondence. Where the report summarises a letter rather than quoting it in full, this page describes it rather than quoting words the report does not give.

What the Report Found About the Benedict XVI Years

Benedict XVI became pope in 2005, and during his pontificate the allegations about McCarrick's conduct with adults resurfaced through the settlements reached in New Jersey and through renewed correspondence. The report finds that Benedict decided against opening a canonical process, in part because the allegations concerned adults and were considered insufficiently established, and chose instead to ask McCarrick to withdraw from public life.

Indications rather than sanctions

According to the report, that decision was conveyed privately, through the apostolic nuncio Archbishop Pietro Sambi, as a request that McCarrick keep a low profile, avoid travel and public appearances, and live quietly. The report describes these as indications and requests rather than formal canonical penalties, meaning no decree was issued, no penalty was recorded, and nothing was published. The distinction matters for what followed, because a request with no decree behind it is a request that can be ignored.

What McCarrick did next

The report finds that McCarrick did not comply. He continued to travel internationally, to appear in public, to speak, and to undertake errands on behalf of Church institutions, and the Holy See did not enforce the earlier indications. Our page on Benedict XVI covers his wider record on abuse cases, and this page does not repeat it.

What the Report Found About 2013 to 2018

Pope Francis was elected in 2013, and the report states that he had heard of McCarrick's reputation only in general terms, understood the matter to have been examined and settled under his two predecessors, and did not receive documentation on it. On that basis the report says he did not alter the approach that had been taken before him. The report records no new allegation involving a minor reaching the Holy See until 2017, when the New York case was reported.

What happened once a minor was involved

When the allegation concerning the former altar server was made in 2017 and found credible by the New York review board in 2018, the response was rapid: removal from ministry, the resignation from the College of Cardinals in July 2018, the penal process, and laicization in February 2019. The contrast between that speed and the previous decades is the report's own implicit argument.

The criticism that remains

Critics of the report, including some survivors' organisations and Catholic commentators, argued that it accounted for the roles of deceased figures more fully than for living officials who served in the Roman curia and in American dioceses during those decades. Others noted that the report focuses on decision-making rather than on the experience of those McCarrick harmed. Our page on Pope Francis discusses the criticism of his handling of abuse cases more broadly.

The Vigano Testimony and What the Report Said About It

In August 2018 Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, a former apostolic nuncio to the United States, published a lengthy public testimony alleging that Benedict XVI had imposed sanctions on McCarrick, that he had personally informed Pope Francis of them in 2013, and that Francis had lifted them. Vigano called on the pope to resign. The document was published through sympathetic Catholic outlets and became the central controversy of that autumn.

What Francis said at the time

Pope Francis initially declined to answer the accusations directly, telling journalists that he would not say a single word about it and inviting them to examine the document and judge for themselves. He later addressed the McCarrick case at greater length and ordered the study that produced the 2020 report.

Where the report differs from the testimony

On the decisive point, the 2020 report describes what Benedict XVI decided as private indications and requests rather than formal canonical sanctions, and it records that Francis was not given documentation on the matter. On both counts it differs from Vigano's account of imposed sanctions that were subsequently lifted. Vigano has continued to maintain his version publicly, and he has since become an open critic of the pope and of the Second Vatican Council, positions that led to a canonical process concluding in his excommunication in 2024. Readers should know that his testimony and the report are two accounts in conflict, and that this page follows the Vatican document while naming the dispute.

Vigano's testimony was published in his own name and is a matter of public record, as are the Holy See's subsequent statements. This page does not adjudicate between the two accounts beyond noting where the 2020 report states something different.

Criminal Charges, Civil Suits and His Death

McCarrick was charged criminally twice and was never tried. In 2021 prosecutors in Massachusetts charged him with indecent assault and battery over an alleged assault on a teenage boy at a wedding reception in the 1970s. He appeared in court and pleaded not guilty.

The competency findings

In 2023 a Massachusetts judge dismissed those charges after finding that McCarrick was not competent to stand trial because of dementia, following evaluations submitted to the court. A separate prosecution brought in Wisconsin over alleged conduct in the 1970s likewise did not reach trial, ending on the same competency grounds. A dismissal for incompetency decides nothing about the underlying allegations, which were never tested by a jury.

Civil litigation

Several civil lawsuits were filed against McCarrick and against dioceses in New Jersey and New York, brought under revived statutes of limitation that a number of states enacted in the late 2010s. Civil cases of this kind commonly end in settlement without an admission of liability, and this page does not report outcomes for individual suits it cannot verify.

His death

McCarrick died in April 2025 at the age of 94. His death ended any remaining proceedings against him. Statements at the time from Church leaders acknowledged the harm done to victims and asked for prayer. He had been dismissed from the clerical state six years earlier, so the public funeral rites ordinarily given to a cardinal did not apply to him.

What the Church Changed Afterwards

The McCarrick case produced concrete changes in Church law, and the question of whether they are applied consistently remains open. The gap the case exposed was specific: procedures existed for accusations against priests, and there was no clear procedure for accusations against a bishop, nor any obligation on those who knew to report what they knew.

Vos estis lux mundi, 2019

Pope Francis issued the motu proprio Vos estis lux mundi in May 2019, later revised and confirmed. It obliges clerics and religious to report abuse and its cover-up to Church authorities, requires every diocese to establish a public and accessible system for receiving reports, and creates a procedure for investigating bishops, normally led by the metropolitan archbishop of the province, with deadlines and with reporting to Rome. It also protects those who report from being silenced.

The end of the pontifical secret for abuse cases

In December 2019 the Holy See removed the pontifical secret from cases of abuse of minors and related offences. That change allows documentation to be given to civil authorities where the law requires it, and removes an instrument that had been used to refuse cooperation.

Penal law revised

The revision of Book VI of the Code of Canon Law, promulgated in 2021, restated and strengthened the penal provisions covering sexual abuse by clerics, added offences covering vulnerable adults, and made explicit the responsibility of superiors who fail to act.

What is still contested

Critics point out that investigations of bishops are still conducted by other bishops, that outcomes are frequently unpublished, and that a person who reports an accusation may never learn what happened to it. Catholics who follow this closely disagree about whether the reforms are structurally sufficient. Our page on the abuse crisis and Church scandals covers the wider record, the grand jury reports and the response.

What This Page Does Not Claim

Parts of this record are open, contested, or outside what can be responsibly stated here, and saying so is part of getting it right.

• This page does not state a total number of victims, incidents, or complaints. No single authoritative finding fixes those numbers, and reported figures vary.
• This page does not name individual victims other than one man who chose to identify himself publicly in his own name, and it reports no detail about any victim's identity.
• This page makes no allegation against any living bishop, cardinal or Vatican official beyond what the 2020 report itself states about the handling of information. Being in office during those decades is not evidence of anything.
• This page does not resolve the conflict between Archbishop Vigano's 2018 testimony and the 2020 report. It states where the two differ.
• This page reports no outcome for individual civil lawsuits, settlement amounts, or confidential terms.
• This page treats criminal charges that were dismissed for incompetency as undetermined, since no court decided the facts.
• This page makes no judgment about the eternal standing of Theodore McCarrick or of anyone else in this account. That judgment belongs to God alone.
• This page does not track developments after mid-2026.

The Catholic Response

The Catholic response to the McCarrick case runs along four lines: what a bishop is for, what confession is, what scandal does, and what is owed to the harmed.

A bishop is a shepherd, and shepherds are judged

Scripture is severe about leaders who use the flock for themselves. Ezekiel condemns the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves and not the sheep, and declares that God will require his sheep at their hand (Ezekiel 34:2 to 10). Jesus warns that whoever causes one of the little ones who believe in him to sin would be better off drowned with a millstone around his neck (Matthew 18:6). Peter tells elders to tend the flock willingly, not for shameful gain, and not by domineering over those in their charge (1 Peter 5:2 to 3). The Catholic Church holds bishops to be successors of the apostles, and that dignity is the reason the failure is grave rather than an excuse for it.

Solicitation in confession is among the gravest offences in Church law

The canonical verdict included solicitation in the sacrament of confession, and Catholics should understand why that is treated with particular horror. Confession is where a person is at their most exposed and most dependent on the priest acting only as an instrument of Christ's mercy. Church law reserves this offence to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith as one of the gravest delicts, and it carries penalties up to dismissal from the clerical state. The seal of confession binds the priest absolutely and forever, which makes the penitent's position in that moment one of total trust. Our guide to the sacrament of confession sets out what the sacrament is and what a penitent is entitled to expect.

Scandal is a sin, and it is worse in those with authority

The Catechism defines scandal as an attitude or behaviour that leads another to do evil, calls it a grave offence when it leads others into serious sin, and states that the gravity is increased by the authority of those who cause it (Catechism of the Catholic Church 2284 to 2287). A Catholic reading that passage in the light of this case will find no softening. The damage runs past the immediate victims to everyone whose faith was shaken and to everyone who now assumes the worst of any priest.

What is owed to those who were harmed

The practical obligations are unglamorous and clear: believe accounts of abuse and pass them to civil authority, refuse to weigh institutional reputation against a person's safety, support the harmed in practical ways with money and time, and keep asking about cases that go quiet. Catholic teaching holds that every person bears the image of God, and a Church that says so and then protects an abuser has contradicted itself in public.

What this case does not prove

One conclusion the case cannot carry is that the Catholic faith is false because a cardinal was a criminal. The Church has always taught that the validity of the sacraments does not depend on the holiness of the minister, a point settled in the fourth and fifth centuries against the Donatists, who argued the opposite. Judas was an apostle. A man's crimes are his own, and the answer to a corrupt shepherd is the demand that shepherds be held to what the office requires, which is exactly what Ezekiel demands.

For the general question of how to test anyone who claims religious authority, see our guides to false prophets and wolves in sheep's clothing, which set out the scriptural tests rather than any individual case.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who was Theodore McCarrick?

Theodore Edgar McCarrick was an American Catholic bishop who served as bishop of Metuchen, archbishop of Newark, and archbishop of Washington, and who was created a cardinal by John Paul II in 2001. In 2018 an allegation that he had abused a teenage altar server in the 1970s was found credible by the review board of the Archdiocese of New York, he was removed from public ministry, and he resigned from the College of Cardinals. In February 2019 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith found him guilty of abuse of minors and of adults and of solicitation in the sacrament of confession, and he was dismissed from the clerical state. He died in April 2025.

Why was Theodore McCarrick laicized?

The Holy See announced in February 2019 that an administrative penal process conducted by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had found McCarrick guilty of sins against the Sixth Commandment with minors and with adults, with the aggravating factor of abuse of power, and of solicitation in the sacrament of confession, and that the penalty imposed was dismissal from the clerical state. His appeal against the decree was rejected and the decision was declared final. Dismissal from the clerical state is the most severe penalty available in the Church's penal law short of excommunication, and it removed his right to exercise any ministry and his title as a cleric.

What did the 2020 Vatican McCarrick Report find?

The Report on the Holy See's Institutional Knowledge and Decision-Making Related to Former Cardinal Theodore Edgar McCarrick, published by the Secretariat of State on 10 November 2020, found that reports about McCarrick sharing a bed with young priests and seminarians reached Church authorities from the 1980s onward, that anonymous letters alleging abuse of minors were sent in the early 1990s and were treated as unsubstantiated, and that inaccurate and incomplete information supplied by American bishops shaped what Rome believed. It found that John Paul II was warned before the Washington appointment in 2000 and was persuaded by McCarrick's own written denial, that Benedict XVI asked McCarrick to withdraw from public life through private indications rather than a formal canonical penalty, and that no allegation involving a minor beyond those uncorroborated anonymous letters reached the Holy See until 2017.

Did John Paul II know about the allegations against McCarrick?

The 2020 report states that John Paul II was informed of allegations that McCarrick had shared a bed with adult seminarians, including through a letter from Cardinal John O'Connor of New York in 1999 opposing his promotion, and that the appointment to Washington was initially set aside as a result. The report records that McCarrick then wrote to Bishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, the pope's secretary, on 6 August 2000, denying that he had ever had sexual relations with any person, and it concludes that John Paul II's eventual decision to appoint him was likely influenced by his belief in that denial and by his experience in Poland of false accusations used against clergy. The report makes no finding of wrongdoing by John Paul II and attributes the appointment to deception and to inaccurate advice.

Was Theodore McCarrick ever convicted in a criminal court?

No. McCarrick was charged in Massachusetts in 2021 with indecent assault and battery over an alleged assault at a wedding reception in the 1970s, and he pleaded not guilty. A judge dismissed those charges in 2023 after finding him not competent to stand trial because of dementia. A separate prosecution brought in Wisconsin also ended without a trial on competency grounds. He faced civil lawsuits as well, and he died in April 2025, so no criminal case against him was ever decided on the facts.

What has the Catholic Church changed since the McCarrick case?

Pope Francis issued the motu proprio Vos estis lux mundi in May 2019, which requires clergy and religious to report abuse and cover-up to Church authorities, obliges every diocese to have a public system for receiving reports, and sets a procedure for investigating bishops themselves, normally through the metropolitan archbishop, with fixed deadlines and reporting to Rome. In December 2019 the Holy See removed the pontifical secret from abuse cases, allowing documents to be shared with civil authorities. The 2021 revision of Book VI of the Code of Canon Law strengthened penal provisions covering abuse and negligence by superiors. Whether these rules are applied consistently is a question of practice that each case tests.