The second face of the mighty cardinal Theodor McCarrick – DiePresse.com
Theodore McCarrick died 94 years old. The once response Archbishop of Washington was outlawed after an abuse scandal in 2018, the church dignity was withdrawn. He showed his other face as « Uncle Ted ».
He was one of the most successful characters of the Catholic Church in the USA. As Archbishop of Washington (2001-2006), Theodore McCarrick received the cardinal hat; Top politicians were looking for his advice and influence. But the abuse scandal in the church finally grasped it with full force. After numerous relevant allegations against him, McCarrick fell into the bottomless from 2018.
On Thursday, the once respected church man died at the age of 94. He recently lived in isolation and demented in a facility for sick clergymen in the state of Missouri. Instead of a benevolent appreciation, the Archdiocese of Washington only published a narrow explanation that is aimed at the victims. « I think especially of those who have caused damage in the course of his priestly service, » said Cardinal Robert Mcelroy, the current Washington Archbishop.
A well -connected archbishop
But how could such an inglorious end come? And why did McCarrick’s abuse on the public remain unnoticed by the public? One reason is that he maintained the best contacts to important actors. As Senator Edward Kennedy, brother of the former president in 2009 John F. Kennedywas buried at the national hero cemetery in Arlington, it was McCarrick who read a letter at the grave that Kennedy was to Pope Benedict XVI. had written.
When 2014 the secret negotiations between the US government of Barack Obama And dictator Raul Castro in Cuba to accommodate diplomatic relationships, McCarrick played a key role in bringing Pope Francis as an intermediary. So he was successful.
« Gaune » before 2018
His outstanding position demonstrated photos with popes, presidents and other celebrities. His fall was all the deeper when it became known that he had apparently abused a minor decades ago as a priest in New York. At the same time, facts became public, the journalists and insiders have long known as a « whisper ». This included McCarrick brought seminarians to his bed for decades.
McCarrick came in 1930 as an Irish -born worker child in the simplest of New York conditions. The father dies early on tuberculosis, the mother works in a factory for auto parts. He later described the parish dominated by Irish -born as his real family, with many real and nominal aunt, sonuses and cousins. At 20 he decides to become a priest. A steep church career follows, which he owes to his joke, talent for languages and engaging charm.
Weekends with young seminarians
When McCarrick became Archbishop of Newark in 1986, he re-applied the learned uncle scheme. In his relationships with young seminarians and priests, he is « Uncle Ted ». Many attacks take place in a beach house in New Jersey. In a Homestory in 2004, he frankly tells that he has always spent a week of vacation there for 20 years with a group of priests and seminarians. What he does not say: He always invited a guest to be betting the house. This « surplus » was then chosen to share the archbishop’s camp.
McCarrick was a gifted « fundraiser ». The « Papal Foundation » he co-founded in 1988 collected hundreds of million US dollars, supported Päpste financially and distributed money for projects in all parts of the world. McCarrick’s role in the foundation’s board (until 2017) opened doors in the Vatican and all over the world. McCarrick always positioned itself against the conservative “cultural fighter” in the church -political camp struggle in the USA. He was on a wavelength with Pope Francis.
McCarrick caught up with the past
It was only in 2018 that he got his own deeds from the past as a pioneer of a zero tolerance policy against abuse. When the church classified several allegations as « credible and substantial », it was only released from the Cardinal College and then from the cleric stand by Francis; Two deep humiliations. In 2020, the Vatican published a more than 450 -page investigation report – the « McCarrick -Report ».
There was no punishment from secular judiciary, especially because of limitation periods. From 2023 expert McCarrick attested inability to negotiate due to advanced dementia. He repeatedly denied the allegations against him. In summer 2019 he said in an interview that he didn’t think he did that things. He stated that unanimous « enemies » had encouraged others to invent abuse stories about him. At an official hearing in September 2021, he was similar. (APA/KAP)
