Laura Schulte
His death was confirmed by Archbishop of Washington Robert McElroy, according to reporting from the National Catholic Register.
The former Cardinal was ordained in 1958, became the archbishop in Newark, New Jersey in 1986, and then the archbishop of Washington, D.C. in 2000.
McCarrick rose to power despite credible claims of sexual abuse against him. A two-year investigation conducted by the Vatican found credible reports of abuse as far back as 1999, including one allegation that he slept with seminarians, according to the National Catholic Register. He resigned from the priesthood in 2018 and was defrocked in 2019.
Peter Isely, a founding member of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, said in a statement Friday that McCarrick's death leaves behind a legacy that the Catholic Church has failed to take full accountability for. Isely cautioned that the process to elect the next pope needs more transparency.
“McCarrick may be dead, but his many victims are not. We are still here, still living with the harm he caused — and with the church’s failure to stop him," he said in the statement. "There is no reason to believe the next conclave won’t include more McCarricks — influencing, protecting, and electing one of their own, just like he did at the last conclave. That’s why the public must know who these candidates are.”
In 2021, McCarrick was accused of assaulting a teen boy at a wedding reception in Massachusetts in 1974, and in 2023 he was charged with sexual abuse in Wisconsin. He was declared unfit to stand for trial late last year, though the charges are still open against him.
Though McCarrick never served in Wisconsin, he did visit the state on vacations.
Prosecutors in Walworth County and the Department of Justice in Wisconsin charged McCarrick with fourth-degree sexual assault over a 1977 incident. Had he been convicted, McCarrick would have faced up to nine months in prison and a $10,000 fine.
The Walworth County case began after someone reported the abuse to the state Department of Justice's wide-ranging clergy abuse investigation. The department's inquiry is ongoing.
Prosecutors said McCarrick groped an 18-year-old while they were both staying as guests at a residence on Geneva Lake. According to documents, the teen was in the lake off a dock when McCarrick and another adult man entered the water. Both groped him and discussed his genitals, the complaint alleges.
The teen tried to get away from the men, according to the complaint, and got out of the lake and ran to the house.
The teen told investigators McCarrick began sexually assaulting him at age 11. According to the complaint, he reported several incidents in which McCarrick inappropriately touched or assaulted him before he was 18 years old.
McCarrick took the teen to lavish parties and events, the complaint said. The accuser also reported that McCarrick had taken him to an event where several adult men assaulted him.
The accuser also said McCarrick had sex with him the day before the incident on Geneva Lake.
In 1977, McCarrick would have been 46 years old. He was a priest in the Archdiocese of New York and was working as the private secretary to Cardinal Terence Cooke. The incident is said to have occurred a month before McCarrick was named auxiliary bishop of New York.
Laura Schulte can be reached at leschulte@jrn.com and on X @SchulteLaura.
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