06-26-2018, 10:32 AM
(06-20-2018, 12:52 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: Retired Catholic cardinal.
Quote:The Vatican has asked retired Washington, D.C., Archbishop Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, to cease public ministry after finding he was credibly accused of sexually abusing a teenager almost 50 years ago, the archdiocese and McCarrick said on Wednesday.
McCarrick is among the highest-ranking of the more than 6,700 U.S. Roman Catholic clerics to be accused of sexually abusing children since the church’s sex abuse scandal broke in 2002, according to BishopAccountability.org, a private group that tracks the allegations.
McCarrick, 87, was accused of sexually abusing a teenager when he was a priest in New York, he said in a statement. He said he was innocent, but an investigation by the Church found the allegations to be credible and substantiated, the archdiocese said in a statement.
“The Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, at the direction of our Holy Father, Pope Francis, has instructed Cardinal McCarrick that he is to refrain from any public ministry or activity until a definite decision is made,” the archdiocese said. McCarrick said he would follow the Vatican’s instruction.
“While I have absolutely no recollection of this reported abuse, and believe in my innocence, I am sorry for the pain the person who brought the charges has gone through,” McCarrick said in a statement.
The clergy sex abuse scandal erupted in Boston and rippled around the globe as abuse was found in many countries, costing the church billions of dollars in settlements and undercutting its moral authority.
Pope Francis has worked to address the scandal, meeting twice with victims of clergy sex abuse. He came under heavy criticism in January, when he vigorously defended Chilean Bishop Juan Barros, who was accused of witnessing a priest’s abuse of boys and doing nothing to stop it.
After returning to the Vatican, the Pope sent an investigator to speak to victims and witnesses, and accepted three Chilean bishops’ resignations. In an interview with Reuters, he said he may accept additional bishops’ resignations.
In addition to the priests accused of sexually assaulting children, high-powered leaders including former Boston Archbishop Cardinal Bernard Law were accused of allowing accused priests to continue to minister to children. Law died in December.
“This is an absolutely stunning revelation … The fact that the Church itself is finding it is credible and substantiated suggests that it indeed is because the Church does not say that lightly,” said Anne Barrett Doyle, a board member at BishopAccountability.org.
Reporting by Makini Brice; Editing by Scott Malone and Marguerita Choy
ttps://www.rawstory.com/2018/06/catholic-cardinal-washington-accused-sex-abuse/
The sexual assault allegations seem to just keep coming, albeit not at quite the feverish pace they were following the revelations against Cosby and Weinstein. You know who the real losers in all this are, don't you? The well-intentioned men of the world who would never think of resorting to these types of actions. It makes it a lot harder to get dates, among other things. They days when a man was invited to drive to a lady's house to pick her up for a date are long gone. This trend began circa late 1970s following the movie "Looking for Mr. Goodbar", which was about a woman murdered by a singles' bar pickup. One good thing about the trend of meeting in public places was that we didn't have to muddle through sets of complex directions the way we did in the pre-GPS era. Gee, we never thought there'd ever be anything like GPS at that time.
I never married in large part because during that late 1970s/early 1980s time frame I was having way too much fun with single life. Using low-budget dating services which were around at the time before the very pricey ones emerged and also attending singles functions such as large dances and game nights, and going to the lakefront beaches during the summer months, I always managed to have an available supply of women at my fingertips in case I wanted a night out. I severely question whether that lifestyle is even possible today.