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DEDHAM, Massachusetts (LifeSiteNews) — Disgraced former cardinal Theodore McCarrick appeared in a Massachusetts courtroom this morning where his attorneys entered a plea of ‘not guilty’ to charges that he sexually molested a 16 year-old boy in 1974. 

In papers filed by Wellesley Police in Dedham District Court in July, McCarrick was charged with three counts of indecent assault and battery on a person over 14. 

During the brief hearing, bail was set at $5,000 for the former Archbishop of Washington, D.C.  He was also required to surrender his passport and ordered not to have contact with his victim or young people under age 18.  

The once powerful cardinal: Now mocked, scolded   

McCarrick, 91, hunched over, using a walker, and wearing a mask, remained silent throughout.  

Outside the courtroom, people lined McCarrick’s path to and from the courthouse and shouted, “You have not repented of the abuse you have done!” and “How many lives? How many children? Shame on you, Prince of the Church!” 

“Video of ex-cardinal Ted McCarrick leaving court today post-arraignment. Survivors berate him,” said Washington Post Religion reporter Michelle Boorstein, describing the scene. 

One woman held a poster urging McCarrick to plead guilty. 

“Laura Breault from Hull protests outside of Dedham District Court as Defrocked Cardinal McCarrick awaits arraignment,” reported photojournalist ‘Capturegirl’ on Twitter. 

“She states that “it would go a long way for survivor’s healing if he was found guilty,” she added. 

 

While a number of civil lawsuits have been filed against the 91-year-old by men in New Jersey and New York over sexual abuse claims dating from the 1970s to the 1990s, McCarrick has avoided any criminal charges, due to the statute of limitations having expired. 

The ex-cardinal is represented by prominent defense attorney Barry Coburn, described as “one of America’s premier defense lawyers.” Coburn’s website notes how he “currently represents former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick in numerous federal and New Jersey pending cases, as well as another cleric, accused of sexual assault, pending trial in Virginia.” 

McCarrick’s alleged victim is represented by renowned sexual abuse attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who has a long history of obtaining over $100 million in settlements for hundreds of victims of clerical sexual abuse. Garabedian launched the current investigation in January 2021, writing a letter to the Norfolk and Middlesex counties district attorneys. 

“This is the first cardinal in the United States ever charged criminally for a sexual offense against a minor,” said Garabedian in July. 

McCarrick, whose whereabouts were previously unknown, now lives at the Vianney Renewal Center in Dittmer, Missouri according to court documents. 

History of sexual abuse 

McCarrick was laicized by the Vatican in February of 2019 with no possibility for appeal, having been found guilty of “solicitation in the Sacrament of Confession, and sins against the Sixth Commandment with minors and with adults, with the aggravating factor of the abuse of power.” 

Ordained a priest in 1958, McCarrick rose through the episcopal ranks, becoming bishop of Metuchen, New Jersey, in 1981, archbishop of Newark in 1986, and archbishop of Washington, D.C. in 2000. Pope John Paul created him a cardinal in 2001. 

It was in the early 1970s, while serving as a priest in New York City, that McCarrick is alleged to have groped an adolescent altar boy in St. Patrick’s Cathedral. That accusation launched the internal investigation by Church authorities. 

In June 2018, the Archdiocese of New York announced that the allegations McCarrick molested an underage altar boy decades ago had been deemed “credible and substantiated.” 

At the time of the accusations, McCarrick maintained he had “absolutely no recollection of this reported abuse and believe in my innocence.” 

Since then, other alleged victims, including former seminarians and priests, have come forward to detail the sexual abuse to which McCarrick subjected them. McCarrick’s most well-known victim, James Grein, has also come forward and said McCarrick abused him for years, starting when he was 11 years old. 

Former Apostolic Nuncio to the U.S. Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò issued an explosive 11-page testimony in 2019, stating that Pope Francis and senior officials in the Vatican knew of McCarrick’s conduct. Viganò wrote that McCarrick, acting as the Pope’s “trusted counselor,” helped him make key appointments in the United States, including that of Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago, whom Pope Francis has tasked with organizing the upcoming Vatican summit on clerical sexual abuse. 

McCarrick’s next hearing is on October 28.