Although dogged for years by rumors of sexual impropriety, Theodore McCarrick was able to rise up the Catholic hierarchical structure based on personal contacts, protestations of his innocence and a lack of church officials reporting and investigating accusations, according to the Vatican summary of its report on the matter.

In choosing then-Archbishop Theodore McCarrick of Newark in 2001 to be archbishop of Washington and later a cardinal, St. John Paul II likely overlooked rumors and allegations about McCarrick’s sexual misconduct because of a long relationship with him, McCarrick’s own strong denial and the pope’s experience with communist authorities in Poland making accusations to discredit the church, the summary said.

But, in fact, rumors of McCarrick’s conduct, especially knowledge that he had young adult men and seminarians sleep in the same bed with him when he was bishop of Metuchen, New Jersey, led the Vatican to decide it would be “imprudent” to promote him when looking for candidates to become archbishop of Chicago in 1997, New York in 1999-2000 and, initially, of Washington in July 2000, the report said.

One hour before the release Nov. 10 of the “Report on the Holy See’s Institutional Knowledge and Decision-Making Related to Former Cardinal Theodore Edgar McCarrick,” journalists were given the document’s 14-page introduction, which described the two-year investigation that led to the report’s compilation and gave an “executive summary” of its findings.

In June 2018 the Vatican suspended McCarrick from ministry after an investigation by the Archdiocese of New York found credible a charge that he sexually abused a teenager. McCarrick resigned from the College of Cardinals in July, and in February 2019, after a canonical process found McCarrick guilty of “solicitation in the sacrament of confession and sins against the Sixth Commandment with minors and with adults, with the aggravating factor of the abuse of power,” Pope Francis dismissed him from the priesthood.

In August 2018, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, former nuncio to the United States, called on Pope Francis to resign after claiming that he had informed Pope Francis of McCarrick’s abuse in 2013 and that top Vatican officials knew of McCarrick’s abusive behavior for years.

That claim led Pope Francis to initiate an investigation into how McCarrick was able to continue to rise through church ranks despite the repeated rumors, anonymous letters, allegations and even settlements with alleged victims.

The report summary said, “No records support Vigano’s account” of his meeting with Pope Francis “and evidence as to what he said is sharply disputed.”

Until the allegations about child sexual abuse were made to the Archdiocese of New York in 2017, “Francis had heard only that there had been allegations and rumors related to immoral conduct with adults occurring prior to McCarrick’s appointment to Washington,” it said.

“Believing that the allegations had already been reviewed and rejected by Pope John Paul II, and well aware that McCarrick was active during the papacy of Benedict XVI, Pope Francis did not see the need to alter the approach that had been adopted in prior years,” the summary said.

The introduction to the report said it is based on documents found at the Vatican and the apostolic nunciature in the United States as well as interviews — “ranging in length from one to 30 hours” — with more than 90 witnesses in the United States, Italy and elsewhere. They included survivors, cardinals, bishops and former seminarians.

In a statement issued with the report, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, said the contributions of survivors were “fundamental.” The introduction of the report cautions survivors of abuse that certain sections “could prove traumatizing” and warns that some portions of the document are “inappropriate for minors.”

He also said that over the course of the two years it took to complete the investigation and compile the report, “we have taken significant steps forward to ensure greater attention to the protection of minors and more effective interventions to avoid” repeating errors of the past.

Among those steps, he highlighted “Vos Estis Lux Mundi” (“You are the Light of the World”), Pope Francis’ 2019 document on promoting bishops’ accountability and setting out procedures for handling accusations of abuse against bishops.

According to the summary, St. John Paul’s decisions to name McCarrick bishop of Metuchen in 1981 and archbishop of Newark in 1986 were based on “his background, skills and achievements. During the appointment process, McCarrick was widely lauded as a pastoral, intelligent and zealous bishop.”

The summary also said that, at the time, “no credible information emerged suggesting that he had engaged in any misconduct.”

But in October 1999 Cardinal John J. O’Connor of New York wrote to Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo, then nuncio in the United States, summarizing allegations about McCarrick, then-archbishop of Newark. The letter was given to St. John Paul, who asked Archbishop Montalvo to investigate.

The nuncio did so by writing to four New Jersey bishops, the summary said without naming the bishops. Besides the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey has only four other dioceses: Camden, Metuchen, Paterson and Trenton.

“What is now known, through investigation undertaken for preparation of the report, is that three of the four American bishops provided inaccurate and incomplete information to the Holy See regarding McCarrick’s sexual conduct with young adults,” the summary said.

In response to Cardinal O’Connor’s accusations, the report said, McCarrick wrote to now-Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, St. John Paul’s secretary, claiming: “In the 70 years of my life, I have never had sexual relations with any person, male or female, young or old, cleric or lay, nor have I ever abused another person or treated them with disrespect.”

“McCarrick’s denial was believed,” the summary said, adding that because of “the limited nature of the Holy See’s own prior investigation, the Holy See had never received a complaint directly from a victim, whether adult or minor, about McCarrick’s conduct.”

“Though there is no direct evidence,” the summary added, “it appears likely from the information obtained that John Paul II’s past experience in Poland regarding the use of spurious allegations against bishops to degrade the standing of the church played a role in his willingness to believe McCarrick’s denials.”

In addition, McCarrick had a relationship with the Polish pope going back to his days as the cardinal of Krakow. The summary said, “McCarrick’s direct relationship with John Paul II also likely had an impact on the pope’s decision-making.”

St. John Paul II “personally made the decision” to name him archbishop of Washington and a cardinal, it said.

The report also concluded that now-retired Pope Benedict XVI did not initiate a formal canonical process against McCarrick or even impose sanctions on him because “there were no credible allegations of child abuse; McCarrick swore on his ‘oath as a bishop’ that the allegations were false; the allegations of misconduct with adults related to events in the 1980s; and there was no indication of any recent misconduct.”

However, after initially asking McCarrick to stay on in Washington for two years past his 75th birthday in 2005, the summary said, new details related to a priest’s allegations about McCarrick’s sexual misconduct emerged and Pope Benedict asked him to step down in 2006.

At the time, the summary said, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, then-prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, told McCarrick “he should maintain a lower profile and minimize travel for the good of the church.”

“While Cardinal Re’s approach was approved by Pope Benedict XVI, the indications did not carry the pope’s explicit imprimatur, were not based on a factual finding that McCarrick had actually committed misconduct and did not include a prohibition on public ministry,” the summary said.

Archbishop Vigano, while working in the Vatican Secretariat of State, wrote memos in 2006 and 2008 “bringing questions related to McCarrick to the attention of superiors,” the summary said. The memos referred to allegations and rumors about McCarrick’s “misconduct during the 1980s and raised concerns that a scandal could result given that the information had already circulated widely.”

The archbishop, the report said, noted that “the allegations remained unproven,” but he suggested opening a canonical process to investigate.

Archbishop Vigano, who was appointed nuncio to the United States in 2011, was “instructed” in 2012 to conduct an inquiry into allegations by a priest who claimed he was sexually assaulted by McCarrick, the summary said.

Archbishop Vigano, it continued, “did not take these steps and therefore never placed himself in the position to ascertain the credibility” of the priest’s claims.

Timeline of key events in McCarrick’s priesthood, ministry

1958 June 15 — Father McCarrick ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of New York by Cardinal Francis Spellman.

1958 — Father McCarrick performs his first baptism in Tenafly, New Jersey. The child, James, later would allege he was abused by Father McCarrick.

1969 — Msgr. McCarrick named assistant secretary of education for the Archdiocese of New York.

1969 — Msgr. McCarrick allegedly exposes himself to James, then an 11-year-old boy, in Northern New Jersey. As reported by The New York Times July 19, James alleged that an abusive relationship continued for nearly 20 years.

1971 — Msgr. McCarrick becomes personal secretary to Cardinal Terence Cooke of New York.

1971 — Msgr. McCarrick allegedly abuses a 16-year-old altar boy in the Archdiocese of New York prior to Christmas Mass. A year later he allegedly abuses the same altar boy, again before Christmas Mass. Both incidents were reported to the archdiocese sometime between March 1, 2017, and April 15, 2018.

1977 June 29 — Msgr. McCarrick ordained as an auxiliary bishop of New York by Cardinal Cooke.

1981 Jan. 31 — Bishop McCarrick installed as first bishop of newly created Diocese of Metuchen, New Jersey.

1984 — Bishop McCarrick authorizes Diocese of Metuchen to purchase beach house in Sea Girt, New Jersey, according to The New York Times. He is alleged to have abused seminarians at the house.

1986 July 25 — Archbishop McCarrick installed as archbishop of Newark, New Jersey.

1987 — Archbishop McCarrick allegedly abuses unnamed seminarian for the Diocese of Metuchen in New York City. The former priest received a settlement from the Archdiocese of Newark and Diocese of Metuchen in 2007, as reported by The New York Times July 16, 2018.

1994 — The unnamed Metuchen priest writes a letter to Archbishop McCarrick’s successor in Metuchen, Bishop Edward T. Hughes, stating that abuse he allegedly endured from Archbishop McCarrick and other priests triggered him to touch two 15-year-old boys inappropriately. In the letter he also claimed he saw Archbishop McCarrick having sex with a young priest and that the archbishop invited him to be next. The letter was in a file the priest provided to the Times on the condition his name not be used.

1995 October — Archbishop McCarrick hosts Pope John Paul II in Newark during his Oct. 4-9 visit to the United States.

2000 Nov. 21 — Archbishop McCarrick appointed by Pope John Paul as archbishop of Washington.

2000 Nov. 21, 24 — Seminary instructor Father Boniface Ramsey says he spoke Nov. 22 with Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo, the Vatican nuncio in Washington, about his concerns about Archbishop McCarrick. He also expressed his concerns in a letter addressed to the nuncio and mailed Nov. 24. Father Ramsey, who taught at Immaculate Conception Seminary at Seton Hall University in New Jersey from 1986-1996, said he was told by seminarians about Archbishop McCarrick’s alleged sexual abuse at the New Jersey beach house.

2001 Jan. 3 — Archbishop McCarrick installed as archbishop of Washington and is elevated by Pope John Paul the next month to cardinal.

2002 April 23-24 — U.S. cardinals including Cardinal McCarrick meet at the Vatican for a summit with Pope John Paul as sex abuse crisis unfolds in the United States. Cardinal McCarrick is on drafting committee of document that emerges from summit. He also is a spokesman for the bishops in Rome and one of three U.S. prelates to give a news conference at the Vatican.

2002 April 28 — Cardinal McCarrick speaking on “Fox News Sunday” urges a distinction between past offenders and anyone who offends from now on. He said he supports the removal of any priest accused in the future but added that cardinals are divided about whether such a policy should be applied to past allegations.

2002 June — Cardinal McCarrick helps draft “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” in Dallas during a meeting of all the U.S. bishops. Charter does not specify abuse committed by bishops or cardinals or abuse of adults over the age of 18; a statement of commitment in the charter obliges bishops to report to the apostolic nuncio if they themselves are accused of sexually abusing a minor or if they become aware of an allegation of such abuse by a bishop. Cardinal McCarrick tells the Catholic Standard, his archdiocesan newspaper, that he had been hesitant to support the charter’s “no strikes” policy of removing from ministry everyone against whom there has been a credible charge of sexual abuse.

2004 — Unnamed priest who wrote letter to Bishop Hughes of Metuchen in 1994 claiming abuse by Archbishop McCarrick is forced to resign under the U.S. church’s new zero-tolerance policy against child abuse, based on his admission of having abused children in the 1994 letter.

2004 Oct. 1 — The Washingtonian magazine runs a profile article on Cardinal McCarrick, the archbishop of Washington. The article states that “for the past 20 years he has vacationed for a week every year on the New Jersey shore, where a friend loans him a house. He usually takes along a group of priests or seminarians.”

2005 — Robert Ciolek, former priest of the Diocese of Metuchen, receives a secret payment of $80,000 from the Diocese of Metuchen and the Archdiocese of Newark as a settlement for alleged abuse by Archbishop McCarrick.

2006 May 16 — Cardinal McCarrick’s resignation as archbishop of Washington is accepted by Pope Benedict XVI. He had submitted his resignation when he turned 75 on July 7, 2005, as required by canon law.

2007 — Unnamed former priest of the Diocese of Metuchen who was allegedly abused as a seminarian in 1987 in New York by Archbishop McCarrick receives secret settlement of $100,000 from the Diocese of Metuchen and the Archdiocese of Newark.

2008 April 22 — Richard Sipe, a former priest who was an adjunct professor at St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore, posts open letter on internet to Pope Benedict alleging Cardinal McCarrick sexual abused seminarians and young priests. He said seminarians came to him with their concerns while he was teaching at seminary.

2010 May 12 — Richard Sipe states in an internet post that the case of a financial settlement by the Diocese of Metuchen and the Archdiocese of Newark for Cardinal McCarrick was sent to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which handles clergy sex abuse claims among some of its responsibilities. He says the congregation has not responded. Sipe posts graphic information from the settlement about an alleged incident involving Archbishop McCarrick and a seminarian and two young priests.

2017 March 1 to April 15, 2018 — During this time the Archdiocese of New York receives an allegation that Msgr. McCarrick abused a teenage boy in 1971 and 1972. Allegation handled according to procedures in “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.”

2018, June 20 — New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan announces that Cardinal McCarrick has been removed from ministry at direction of the Vatican after an investigation by the Archdiocese of New York found credible a charge that he sexually abused a teenager.

2018, June 20 — Cardinal McCarrick issues statement saying that he was advised months ago by Cardinal Dolan about the allegation against him. Cardinal McCarrick maintains that he is innocent and says he does not have recollection of the abuse.

2018, June 20 — Newark Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin issues statement about Cardinal McCarrick saying the Archdiocese of Newark and the Diocese of Metuchen “received three allegations of sexual misconduct with adults decades ago; two of these resulted in settlements.”

2018, June 20 — Metuchen Bishop James F. Checchio says a re-examination of diocesan archives did not uncover “any report or allegation that Cardinal McCarrick ever abused any minor during his time in Metuchen.” Bishop Checchio acknowledges that in the past there have been allegations that then-Bishop McCarrick engaged in sexual behavior with adults.

2018, June 20 — Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington issues statement saying that concurrent with the Archdiocese of New York investigation he requested a review be made of Washington archdiocesan records. He states that no claims were made against Cardinal McCarrick during the prelate’s time in Washington.

2018, July 16 — The New York Times publishes a front-page story detailing alleged abuse of two seminarians who became priests in the Diocese of Metuchen, by Cardinal McCarrick in the 1980s that resulted in settlements to both men. These are the settlements concerning “sexual misconduct with adults” as described by the Newark Archdiocese and Diocese of Metuchen June 20.

2018, July 24 — Boston Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley, president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, issues a statement confirming that his office in 2015 received a letter from Father Boniface Ramsey alerting them to the abuse of Cardinal McCarrick. Cardinal O’Malley states he did not “personally receive” the letter and that at the staff level a reply was made to Father Ramsey that it “did not fall under the purview of the Commission or the Archdiocese of Boston.”

2018, July 28 — Pope Francis accepts resignation of Cardinal McCarrick from College of Cardinals and suspends him from public ministry. The pope orders him to a “life of prayer and penance” until the accusations against him are examined in a canonical trial.

2018, Aug. 1 — Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, announces that the conference “will pursue the many questions surrounding Archbishop McCarrick’s conduct to the full extent of its authority.”

2018, September — The Archdiocese of Washington announces that Archbishop McCarrick has been sent to live among a small community of Capuchin Franciscan friars in rural Kansas.

2018, October — The Vatican issues a statement noting that a year ago there had been a thorough preliminary investigation into an allegation against Archbishop McCarrick and the results will be combined with a further study of documents.

2018, Dec. 27 — James Grein, a Virginia man who said Archbishop McCarrick sexually abused him for years beginning when he was 11, gives testimony before a judicial vicar for the New York Archdiocese.
His testimony was requested by the Vatican.

2019, Jan. 5 — The online Catholic news outlet Crux reports that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is reviewing a third case involving Archbishop McCarrick and a minor, one more case than previously reported.

2019, Jan. 10 — Church officials confirm that Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl, now retired archbishop of Washington, had forwarded an allegation of sexual misconduct against Archbishop McCarrick to the papal nuncio in Washington in 2004, when the cardinal was bishop of Pittsburgh.

2019, Feb. 13 — Dioceses in the state of New Jersey make public the names of priests whom they said had been “credibly accused” of sexual abuse of minors, including Archbishop McCarrick. His inclusion is based “on the findings of the Archdiocese of New York that allegations of abuse of a minor against then-Father McCarrick were credible and substantiated.”

2019, Feb. 16 — Pope Francis confirms McCarrick’s removal from the priesthood after he was found guilty of “solicitation in the sacrament of confession and sins against the Sixth Commandment with minors and with adults, with the aggravating factor of the abuse of power.”

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