A Vatican report examining Theodore McCarrick’s career in the Catholic Church states that Pope John Paull II knew that the ex-Cardinal slept with seminarians two decades before he was removed from the priesthood. The 449-page report determines that the late Pope and other top leaders of the Church dismissed or downplayed charges of sexual abuse against McCarrick.
According to the report, John Paul II, now a saint, had been informed of the ex-Cardinal’s sexual misconduct but still appointed him to higher positions in the Church. Despite receiving clues of McCarrick’s behavior, the late pontiff dismissed them for lack of proof or chose to believe the ex-Cardinal’s explanations.
In 2000, McCarrick wrote a letter to John Paul II’s secretary explaining that he never had sexual relations with anyone. After several months, John Paul II appointed the ex-Cardinal as archbishop of Washington.
Before McCarrick’s appointment, several unnamed bishops in New Jersey, where he served as archbishop before moving to Washington, were also to be faulted for failing to disclose what they knew about the disgraced ex-Cardinal. They claimed that McCarrick had shared a bed with teen boys but did not say exactly that he had sexual relations with them.
“What is now known … 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,” states the report. “This inaccurate information appears likely to have impacted the conclusions of John Paul II’s advisors and, consequently, of John Paul II himself.”
The Vatican report also suggests that John Paul II might have been clouded by his friendship with McCarrick. “Though there is no direct evidence, 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,” claimed the report.
The document, which came only after two long years of investigation on the sexual misconduct claims, however, clears Pope Francis of any fault. “Until 2017, no one … provided Pope Francis with any documentation regarding allegations against McCarrick,” it says. “Pope 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.”
In February 2019, McCarrick was defrocked by Pope Francis after the conclusion of the Vatican investigation confirming years of allegations of sexual molestations against children and adults. He was found guilty on January 11 at the age of 88.
Den of Faith 