Highest Ranking U.S. Catholic Official Charged with Sexual Abuse
After years of dodging multiple claims of sexually abusing minors while a cardinal of the Catholic church, Theodore McCarrick now faces three counts of indecent assault and battery on a person aged 14 or over.
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Theodore E. McCarrick, the former Roman Catholic cardinal expelled by Pope Francis, has been criminally charged with repeatedly sexually assaulting a teenage boy at a wedding in 1974, making him the highest-ranking Catholic official in the United States to face charges in the sexual abuse crisis that has plagued the church for decades, reports the New York Times. McCarrick was expelled from the church in 2019 after a Vatican trial found him guilty of sexually abusing minors and adult seminarians over decades, but avoided punishment time and time again because statutes of limitations made cases difficult to pursue, and victims have lamented that he has largely escaped legal accountability.
McCarrick, who now lives in Missouri, was charged with three counts of indecent assault and battery on a person aged 14 or over, and is expected to appear for arraignment on Sept. 3. Each charge carries a penalty of up to five years in prison and the requirement to register as a sex offender.
