Cardinal Theodore McCarrick
November 17, 2020
by Elizabeth Yore
“There is no place where espionage is not used. Offer the enemy bait to lure him.” — Sun Tzu Sexual predators, like spies, are masters of deception and deceit. Both operate in secrecy, perpetuate a cover story, manipulate their victims through lies, and maintain a facade of respectability. Often, sexual predators become prime and easy [...]
September 17, 2019
by Jane Clark Scharl
It was only a year ago that the Pennsylvania grand jury released its report on sexual abuse by priests. It was only a year ago that allegations broke about Theodore McCarrick and the network of sexual abusers who have infiltrated the highest levels of the Church. It was only a year ago that Archbishop Viganò’s [...]
March 11, 2019
by William Kilpatrick
Watching Bernie Sanders's speech announcing his candidacy for president, it struck me that—except for the part about a woman’s right to choose—Pope Francis would have found himself in agreement with just about every item on the aging socialist warrior’s agenda. This reminded me for the umpteenth time that the pope has far more radical ideas [...]
February 18, 2019
by Julia Meloni
Theodore McCarrick the ex-cardinal has now been defrocked—just in time for the media coverage swirling around Pope Francis’s sex abuse summit this week. But McCarrick the kingmaker, McCarrick the narrative-spinner, still lives on—a spirit too towering to retire. In 2002, McCarrick worked the media as the “attractive public face” of the sexual abuse crisis. The [...]
October 24, 2018
by Scott P. Richert
In recent decades, the whistleblower has occupied a prominent yet uncertain place in American culture. Sometimes, he is greeted as a hero, and his story becomes the stuff of legend, recounted in books, Dateline NBC episodes, and blockbuster Hollywood movies. At other times, depending on whose eardrum gets pierced by his whistle, he is reviled and [...]
October 16, 2018
by John M. McCarthy
In a letter dated October 7th, Cardinal Marc Ouellet penned an open reply to Archbishop Viganò’s most recent appeal to Ouellet to “bear witness to the truth” concerning the alleged sanctions placed on Cardinal McCarrick by Benedict XVI and subsequently lifted by Pope Francis. Viganò claimed that, as Prefect for the Congregation of Bishops, Cardinal [...]
October 10, 2018
by William Kilpatrick
Reading through the Instrumentum Laboris (IL)—the working document for the Youth Synod—one gets the impression that the biggest challenge young people face in life is discovering their sexuality. Fortunately, the Synod Fathers stand ready to “accompany” youth on their journey of self-discovery wherever it may lead. The bishops have particular solicitude for LGBT youth who [...]
September 11, 2018
by Anthony Esolen
In my previous article I expressed some disagreement with people who said that the now disgraced Theodore McCarrick must never have had more than a “notional” faith, because otherwise he never would have done the wicked things he did. In the meantime, one of my acquaintances described her encounters with McCarrick, who was invariably nice [...]
September 3, 2018
by Anthony Esolen
I have not written about the recent barrage of accusations regarding the scandal of Catholic priests who could not keep their hands and other things to themselves, and the prelates who did the same, encouraged them, or shuffled them here and there to hide them. I am not a private investigator or a lawyer, so [...]
August 31, 2018
by Austin Ruse
When Theodore McCarrick was spooning and fondling seminarians, quite obviously he did not consider how far his enormities would reverberate. At the General Judgement, he will be shown how far his despicable actions have reverberated through society and how they harmed the lives of people he has never met. At the General Judgement, he will [...]
August 28, 2018
by Joseph Meaney
The Dublin World Meeting of Families (WMF) and Pope Francis’s visit to Ireland that just concluded were remarkable for what was NOT said. Unquestionably, the dominant news story from Ireland this summer was the result of the May 2018 Irish national referendum on abortion. The pro-abortion side won this vote by a large majority while [...]
August 13, 2018
by Jeffrey Tranzillo
Following the long overdue revelations about the contemptible sexual misconduct of former cardinal Theodore McCarrick, many authors have rightly expressed their indignation toward him and his episcopal enablers. In this article, I will try not to spend much time on ground already well trod, but will rather highlight some of the lessons from the McCarrick [...]
August 3, 2018
by Austin Ruse
The gaying of the Church is perhaps the most diabolical attack the Devil has ever launched against the Catholic Faith. First, there is the massive damage done to the Church: the thousands of victims, the hundreds of millions in payouts, the bankruptcy of dioceses, and the cratering of ecclesial credibility. And yet, in our society [...]
August 1, 2018
by Anthony Esolen
The disgrace of Theodore Cardinal McCarrick, credibly accused of having for many years groomed and abused teenage boys, seminarians, and priests, sometimes with a measure of consent and sometimes without any consent at all, gives us a rare opportunity to survey the whole miserable scene as regards both the Church and what, for want of [...]
July 27, 2018
by Eric Sammons
While on the scaffold awaiting his execution, St. Thomas More famously declared, “I die the king's faithful servant, but God's first.” Throughout the controversy surrounding King Henry’s divorce and remarriage, More was adamant about one thing: he was a servant of the king, and accepted the king’s authority over the land. Although he could not [...]
June 25, 2018
by Bob Sullivan
Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick was ordained a priest in 1958 in the Archdiocese of New York. He was made an auxiliary bishop in 1977 and went on to become bishop of Metuchen, N.J., then archbishop of Newark, N.J., and finally archbishop of Washington D.C. He was made a cardinal in 2001 and retired a few [...]