By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis has accepted the
resignation from the College of Cardinals of Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick,
retired archbishop of Washington, and has ordered him to maintain “a life
of prayer and penance” until a canonical trial examines accusations that
he sexually abused minors.
The announcement came first from the U.S. Conference of
Catholic Bishops and a few minutes later from the Vatican press office.
The press office said July 28 that the previous evening Pope
Francis had received Cardinal McCarrick’s letter of “resignation as a
member of the College of Cardinals.”
“Pope Francis accepted his resignation from the
cardinalate and has ordered his suspension from the exercise of any public
ministry, together with the obligation to remain in a house yet to be indicated
to him, for a life of prayer and penance until the accusations made against him
are examined in a regular canonical trial,” the Vatican statement said.
In late June, Cardinal McCarrick, the 88-year-old retired
archbishop of Washington, said he would no longer exercise any public ministry
“in obedience” to the Vatican after an allegation he abused a
teenager 47 years ago in the Archdiocese of New York was found credible. The
cardinal has said he is innocent.
In the weeks that followed the announcement, another man
came forward claiming he was abused as a child by Cardinal McCarrick and
several former seminarians have spoken out about being sexually harassed by the
cardinal at a beach house he had.
Although unusual, withdrawal from the College of Cardinals
in such circumstances is not unheard of. Just 10 days before then-Pope Benedict
XVI retired in 2013, Scottish Cardinal Keith O’Brien announced he would not
participate in the conclave to elect Pope Benedict XVI’s successor because he
did not want media attention focused on him instead of the election of a new
pope.
Pope Benedict XVI had accepted the cardinal’s resignation as
archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh after reports that three priests and a
former priest had accused the cardinal of “inappropriate conduct”
with them going back to the 1980s.
One week after the conclave that elected Pope Francis, the
Vatican announced the new pope accepted Cardinal O’Brien’s decision to renounce
all “duties and privileges” associated with being a cardinal. He died
March 19.
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