JAKARTA - Former Roman Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick has been charged with assaulting a 16-year-old boy at a wedding reception in 1974.
Citing Reuters on Friday, July 30, the indictment makes McCarrick the highest-ranking United States (US) Catholic official to be criminally charged, for sexually abusing minors.
Documents filed in state court in Dedham, Massachusetts, on Wednesday show McCarrick, 91, facing three counts of indecent assault on a person aged 14 or older.
McCarrick, an influential leader in the Church of America for many years was expelled from the priesthood in 2019 after a Vatican investigation found him guilty of abusing minors and adults.
A lengthy Vatican report released in November 2020 found McCarrick had risen through the ranks in the church despite rumors of sexual misconduct. In 2000 Pope John Paul II appointed him Archbishop of Washington DC.
McCarrick's attorney, Barry Coburn, told Reuters: "We look forward to handling this case in the courtroom". McCarrick has previously said he has no recollection of child abuse.
The victim's attorney, Mitchell Garabedian, who represents many victims of sexual abuse in the church, said McCarrick was the first US cardinal to be charged with sexual crimes against a minor.
"It takes enormous courage for a victim of sexual harassment to report being sexually assaulted to investigators, and to proceed with criminal proceedings", he wrote in an email.
McCarrick already faced several civil lawsuits from people who accused him of sexual harassment decades ago, but the statute of limitations in those cases has expired, preventing criminal charges.
However, the statute of limitations in the Massachusetts case was frozen when McCarrick left the state because he was not a resident of the state, according to the Boston Globe, which first reported the allegations.
The alleged victim told investigators that McCarrick, a family friend, began molesting him when he was a child, according to a police report filed in court. The abuse occurred in several states, including New York, California, and New Jersey, the report said.
The man told police, during his brother's wedding reception on June 8, 1974, at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, McCarrick told him that his father wanted the two of them to talk about his bad behavior.
McCarrick groped him as they walked around campus, before leading him into a small closet-like room and stroking him in prayer, the man told authorities.
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To note, McCarrick, who currently resides in Dittmer, Missouri, is scheduled to be indicted in Massachusetts on September 3, according to a spokeswoman for the Norfolk County district attorney's office.
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