Washington D.C., 29 July, 2021 / 10:20 am (ACI Africa).
Former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick has been criminally charged with sexual assault of a teenage boy, a crime alleged to have occurred in the 1970s, according to court documents filed in a Massachusetts court on July 28.
McCarrick, now 91, is charged with three counts of indecent assault and battery on a person over the age of 14, court documents show. This latest development, first reported Thursday by the Boston Globe, marks a major escalation of the legal and canonical saga surrounding the disgraced ex-prelate because this is the first time he has been criminal charged since allegations of longstanding sexual misconduct by McCarrick first surfaced three years ago.
McCarrick was dismissed from the clerical state by Pope Francis in 2019, after the Vatican conducted an expedited canonical investigation and 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.”
You can read the full text of the criminal complaint below. Out of privacy and security concerns, CNA has redacted McCarrick's Social Security Number and phone number, which were left unredacted in the criminal complaint. Warning: These documents describe incidents of alleged sexual assaults in graphic detail.