VATICAN CITY, KOMPAS.com – A Vatican report found that two Pause and a number of church officials ignored the accusations against one person cardinal The United States was later found guilty of action sexual harassment.
Theodore McCarrick, a former archbishop of Washington DC, was expelled from the priesthood following a Vatican investigation last year.
The Vatican has released the report, which also examines how McCarrick can continue to advance in rank despite allegations dating back decades.
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According to the report, credible evidence only emerged in 2017.
Pope Francis, who was in office, then ordered that research be carried out.
Last year, the investigation found that McCarrick, now 90, sexually abused a teenage boy in the 1970s.
Since the incident is so long ago, it may be too late to file a criminal complaint against McCarrick if it follows the time limits set out in US law.
What are the findings of the report?
The 450 pages thick report includes testimonies and dozens of letters, as well as transcripts from the Vatican archives and Catholic church in the US.
McCarrick served as archbishop of Washington DC from 2001 to 2006.
The report found that the deceased Pope John Paul II, who died in 2005, was informed of the abuses but chose to trust American bishops who had hidden the information, as well as McCarrick himself, who denied all charges.
It also found that Pope Benedict XVI, who resigned in 2013, may have rejected the proposed investigation because “there are no credible allegations of child abuse”.
The report acknowledges that, on retrospect, the Vatican’s previous investigations into McCarrick were “limited”.
In July 2018, McCarrick became the first person to resign as a cardinal since 1927. Pope Francis suspended McCarrick from all pastoral duties in February of the following year.
McCarrick was among hundreds of clergy members accused of sexually abusing children over the decades.
“We are publishing a report with sorrow for the wounds these events have caused to the victims, their families, the Church in the United States and the Church as a whole,” said the Vatican Secretary of State, cardinal Pietro Parolin.
Litany for the sake of covering up the church
From an investigation that spanned two years, interviews with 90 witnesses – some of which took up to 30 hours – showed: a litany of cover-ups and involvement of parties ignoring the open secrets of Theodore McCarrick’s serial sexual harassment. allows him to move up the ranks to become a cardinal.
The contents of this report are not only concerned with the individuals targeted in the investigation; but the culture of the Church under some Popes hides facts, makes lying easy, and chooses to believe in a predator over a victim.
The fact that the report blatantly exposes Pope John Paul II and Benedict XVI’s misjudgment is something new – let alone Pope John Paul II, who was declared a saint in 2014.
Pope Francis is not entirely to blame in the report, saying he was taking action on the first claim that was deemed concrete in a case of alleged pedophilia. Previous accusations that were not deemed credible constitute an indictment in itself.
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Pope Francis has taken several steps to address the abuse crisis – albeit too late, critics say.
But crimes like these that can last so long are tragic exposures of decades of failure.
What are the charges against McCarrick?
McCarrick allegedly attacked a teenager in the early 1970s, while serving as a pastor in New York. The claim was published by the current Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan.
Cardinal Dolan said an independent forensic body was investigating the allegations. A review board in 2018, made up of lawyers, psychologists, parents and a pastor, later found the allegations “can be trusted and substantiated.”
At the time, McCarrick said he “had no recollection of this reported harassment” and insisted his innocence.
Since the investigation surfaced, several men have accused her of sexual assault at a beachside house in New Jersey, where she allegedly took them while they were studying to become a priest. One man said he was attacked while still a minor.
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It also revealed that settlement by payment method was reached in at least two cases of alleged sexual misconduct involving McCarrick.
The cases involved “allegations of sexual abuse with adult victims decades ago” when he was bishop of New Jersey, bishops in the state told US media.
Last month, two Catholic priests were put on trial at the Vatican, marking the first time the city-state has heard a sexual abuse allegation.
While a number of other priests face allegations of abuse around the world, the Vatican has never held trials on allegations of sexual harassment within its own territory.
Pope Francis called for “stern action” when he was elected in 2013, but critics say he has not done enough to hold bishops accused of covering up sexual abuse accountable.
In August 2018, he wrote to all Roman Catholics to condemn sexual abuse by clergy and demand an end to the cover-up.
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