1. Theodore Edgar McCarrick was an American Roman Catholic bishop and cardinal who was Archbishop of Newark from 1986 to 2000 and Archbishop of Washington from 2001 to 2006.
70 Facts About Theodore McCarrick
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Theodore McCarrick was appointed Archbishop of Washington in 2000 and made a cardinal in 2001.
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Multiple reports about Theodore McCarrick's alleged conduct with adult seminarians were made to American bishops and the Holy See, but Theodore McCarrick vehemently and explicitly denied the allegations to the Vatican.
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Theodore McCarrick's case sparked demands for accountability and reform in the Catholic Church.
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Theodore McCarrick lived at monasteries in Kansas and Missouri until his death in 2025.
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Theodore McCarrick's father was a ship captain who died from tuberculosis when McCarrick was three years old, and his mother then worked at an automobile parts factory in The Bronx.
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Theodore McCarrick was expelled from the Jesuit Xavier High School in his junior year for missing classes.
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Theodore McCarrick missed an academic year due to the expulsion, but a friend of his family was able to help get him into the Jesuit Fordham Preparatory School.
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Theodore McCarrick studied in Switzerland for a year before returning to the United States and attending Fordham University.
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Theodore McCarrick later entered St Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers, from where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy and a Master of Arts in theology.
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Theodore McCarrick was a polyglot, speaking five languages.
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Theodore McCarrick was ordained to the priesthood by Cardinal Francis Spellman, Archbishop of New York, on May 31,1958.
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Theodore McCarrick then served as an assistant chaplain at the Catholic University, becoming dean of students and director of development.
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Theodore McCarrick served as president of the Catholic University of Puerto Rico from 1965 to 1969, and was given the honorary title of Domestic Prelate of His Holiness in 1965.
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Theodore McCarrick was an associate secretary for education and an assistant priest at Blessed Sacrament parish from 1969 to 1971.
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In May 1977, Theodore McCarrick was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of New York and Titular Bishop of Rusibisir by Pope Paul VI.
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Theodore McCarrick selected as his episcopal motto: "Come Lord Jesus".
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On November 19,1981, Theodore McCarrick was appointed the first bishop of the Diocese of Metuchen, New Jersey.
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Theodore McCarrick was installed at St Francis of Assisi Cathedral on January 31,1982.
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Theodore McCarrick was on the Bishops' Ad Hoc Committee that revised the New American Bible in 1986 and oversaw the development of the Diocesan Council of Catholic Women, Bishop's Annual Appeal, and ministries for blacks and Hispanics, anti-abortion activities, and the disabled.
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On May 30,1986, Theodore McCarrick was appointed the fourth Archbishop of Newark.
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Theodore McCarrick promoted vocations, and ordained a total of 200 priests for the archdiocese.
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Theodore McCarrick was elected chairman of the Bishops' Committee on International Policy in 1996.
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Theodore McCarrick visited Bosnia, China, Poland, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, and Switzerland.
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In 1998, in addition to his duties as archbishop, Theodore McCarrick was designated as superior of the Roman Catholic Mission sui iuris of the Turks and Caicos Islands; he delegated this mission to priests of the Neocatechumenal Way.
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However, one month later, Theodore McCarrick himself wrote a letter to Pope John Paul II's secretary to say that he had been tipped off about O'Connor's letter and vehemently denied the allegations:.
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Theodore McCarrick was formally installed as the fifth archbishop of Washington at the Cathedral of St Matthew the Apostle on January 3,2001.
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Theodore McCarrick was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2005 papal conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI.
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In June 2004, Theodore McCarrick was accused of intentionally misreading a letter from Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger recommending that Catholic politicians who supported abortion rights be denied the Eucharist.
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Theodore McCarrick led a successful push to have the USCCB allow the bishops of individual dioceses to determine who was or was not eligible to receive the sacrament of communion.
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Theodore McCarrick later met with then senator John Kerry, a Catholic and the Democratic nominee in that year's presidential election.
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From May 16,2006, until Wuerl's installation on June 22,2006, Theodore McCarrick served as the Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese of Washington, an interim post.
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Theodore McCarrick subsequently moved to the grounds of the provincial headquarters of the Institute of the Incarnate Word in Chillum, Maryland, in a building on a complex that included a seminary.
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Theodore McCarrick was named a counselor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in 2007.
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In 2009, McCarrick presided over the graveside service of US Senator Edward M Kennedy at Arlington National Cemetery, where he read from a letter Kennedy had written to Pope Benedict XVI.
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Theodore McCarrick spent a significant amount of time traveling and engaging in inter-religious dialogue.
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Theodore McCarrick traveled to Armenia to discuss Syria with Eastern Orthodox clerics, the Philippines to visit typhoon victims, China for discussions on religious freedom, Iran for talks on nuclear proliferation, and served as a Vatican intermediary for the US-Cuba talks.
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In 1994, a priest wrote a letter to Bishop Edward T Hughes, McCarrick's successor as Bishop of Metuchen, stating that McCarrick had inappropriately touched him.
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The authors suggest that this was because as bishop, Theodore McCarrick was an efficient fundraiser for the Pope's causes, including anti-Communist efforts in Poland.
40.
In February 2019, the same month Theodore McCarrick was laicized by the Vatican, an image of a letter dated October 11,2006 which Sandri sent to Ramsey, and which illustrates Ramsey's account of his involvement in the Theodore McCarrick affair, was published by the media, including in a Commonweal article which Ramsey himself wrote.
41.
Mike Kelly of the New Jersey Record reported that in a conversation with Cardinal Joseph W Tobin of Newark, Tobin said that around the time he became Archbishop of Newark in 2016, he heard "rumors" about McCarrick having slept with seminarians, but chose not to believe them, stating that at the time they seemed too "incredulous" to be true.
42.
In 2018, news outlets reported that priests and former seminarians under Theodore McCarrick had alleged that Theodore McCarrick had engaged in inappropriate conduct with male seminarians.
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The Catholic University of America, where Theodore McCarrick earned two degrees and served in a variety of spiritual and administrative positions, revoked the honorary degree it had awarded him in 2006.
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James had been the first boy Theodore McCarrick had ever baptized.
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Theodore McCarrick explained that he tried to tell his father a couple of years later but was not believed.
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On July 27,2018, Pope Francis ordered Theodore McCarrick to observe "a life of prayer and penance in seclusion" and accepted his resignation from the College of Cardinals, the first resignation since Louis Billot, a French prelate, resigned in 1927 when he refused an order to withdraw his support of Action Francaise, a monarchist movement that Pope Pius XI had condemned.
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Theodore McCarrick was not laicized at the time, pending the completion of a canonical trial.
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Theodore McCarrick said nothing was done to stop McCarrick.
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Theodore McCarrick knew that he was a corrupt man, he covered for him to the bitter end.
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The report found that Vigano actively sought harsh sanctions for Theodore McCarrick while working as an official in the Secretariat of State.
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Anthony J Figueiredo, released letters written by McCarrick suggesting that while senior Vatican officials placed restrictions on the former Cardinal after abuse allegations surfaced, they were not official sanctions and were not strictly enforced under the papacies of either Pope Benedict XVI or Pope Francis.
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Theodore McCarrick stated that he "knew nothing" about McCarrick's conduct.
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Theodore McCarrick claimed to have discussed restrictions that were placed on him with Wuerl, but Wuerl denied that he had any knowledge of such restrictions.
54.
On September 28,2018, it was announced that Theodore McCarrick had moved to the Capuchin St Fidelis Friary in Victoria, Kansas, the day before.
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On February 16,2019, the Holy See Press Office announced that Theodore McCarrick had been laicized.
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Theodore McCarrick was the most senior church official in modern times to be laicized.
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Theodore McCarrick revealed that he never left the friary and participated in the daily routine of the other men who lived there.
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In January 2020, it was announced that Theodore McCarrick had moved out of the friary to an undisclosed location that was "secluded and away from public attention".
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Theodore McCarrick reportedly made the decision to move over concerns that media attention regarding his presence there might have a negative impact on the friary and because he wanted to be closer to his family.
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The Vatican Office for Bishops ordered Theodore McCarrick to retire to private life verbally in 2006, and put it in writing in 2008, but both times he ignored their instructions.
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In 2006, $100,000 was paid by the Diocese of Metuchen, where Theodore McCarrick had been bishop from 1981 to 1986.
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Between 2001 and 2006, Theodore McCarrick gave $600,000 to high-ranking church officials, including two popes, multiple priests, cardinals, and archbishops, when he was Archbishop of Washington.
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The alleged victim maintained that Theodore McCarrick abused him with the assistance of other priests beginning in 1982, when he was 14.
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The Archidocese of Newark, Diocese of Metuchen, where Theodore McCarrick was serving as bishop of at time of the alleged abuse, and the Catholic schools the alleged victim attended where named as defendants in the lawsuit as well.
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The alleged abuse occurred around the same time Theodore McCarrick ordained Reading as a priest.
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On September 3,2021, Theodore McCarrick pleaded not guilty in Dedham District Court to three counts of indecent assault and battery stemming from the alleged 1974 incident.
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Theodore McCarrick allegedly abused the victim over a period of time, including at the Geneva Lake residence where he fondled the victim's genitals.
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On July 27,2018, Theodore McCarrick was ordered by Pope Francis to observe "a life of prayer and penance in seclusion", and the Pope accepted his resignation from the College of Cardinals.
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Theodore McCarrick relocated to the Vianney Renewal Center in Dittmer, Missouri.
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Theodore McCarrick died on April 3,2025 at the age of 94 at a nursing facility in Missouri, where he had moved shortly before his death.