Theodore McCarrick was one of the Roman Catholic Church’s highest-ranking clergymen: he was a cardinal, and also the archbishop of Washington DC. But now, he’s a disgraced 93-year-old man and the only cardinal to have ever faced sex abuse charges.
However, a judge in Massachusetts has dismissed a criminal case against McCarrick, in which he pleaded not guilty, stemming from the alleged molestation of a 16-year-old boy there in 1974. The reason? Examinations found him to be not competent enough for trial due to dementia.
In 2019, the church kicked McCarrick out of the priesthood following an internal investigation that found multiple instances of sexual misconduct. Later, the Vatican issued a report saying that Pope John Paul II promoted him up the ranks of the Church hierarchy despite knowledge of his sex abuse allegations.
McCarrick also faces a sexual assault charge in Wisconsin, stemming from an alleged incident there in 1977. It is unknown if the judge in that case will come to the same conclusion about his mental fitness.
