The Vatican has delivered its final verdict on the former Cardinal Archbishop of Washington, Theodore McCarrick. Last Saturday, it announced that it had dismissed him from the clerical state after finding him 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”. Mr McCarrick will no longer be permitted to style himself as a priest or celebrate the sacraments, except to grant absolution for sins to those close to death. He cannot appeal the judgment, as Pope Francis has ruled that it is “definitive”.
And yet few believe that the McCarrick affair is over. Why? Because for decades the prelate presided over an informal network of patronage that extended not only from the United States to Rome, but perhaps also to Africa and Asia, which he visited frequently on ostensibly charitable missions.
McCarrick appears to have built this network with the help of large sums of money. He reportedly had a custom of handing out envelopes filled with cash to Vatican officials. If he was challenged, he would insist it was not a bribe, but rather a way of thanking them for their work. His influence also seems to have extended to episcopal appointments. Several clerics who worked closely with him have become bishops, some quite senior. All deny knowledge of his behaviour, but they will struggle to escape his shadow.
While we now know the truth about McCarrick the man, we know little about the apparatus he spent a lifetime building. Last October, the Vatican said it was conducting a “thorough study” of all available documentation related to McCarrick “in order to ascertain all the relevant facts, to place them in their historical context and to evaluate them objectively”. But it is unlikely that this report will ever be made public.
There are a range of theories as to why. One is that it would damage the legacy of St John Paul II, who named McCarrick as archbishop of Washington, DC. Another is that it would harm the frail Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI, who apparently disciplined McCarrick but was unable to impose his will upon him. Another still is that it would confirm that Pope Francis ignored warnings about McCarrick’s reputation early in his pontificate. Others argue that the Vatican will not release the study as it would implicate dozens of curial officials who were part of McCarrick’s patronage network.
We currently have no way of ascertaining which of these theories is true. The truth is likely to come not from the Vatican but rather from investigative journalism.
As our columnist Fr Raymond de Souza has argued in these pages, a “culture of ‘overlooking’ ” permeates the Church. Officials are willing to turn a blind eye to misdemeanours, some out of a misguided sense of charity, others out of the desire for a quiet life. But unless they are challenged early, these errors can lead to grave sins and then perhaps to crimes.
“Eventually, we may find out who did what regarding McCarrick,” Fr de Souza wrote last month. “But that is the past. The key issue for the future is the change necessary so that it is no longer normal – between parish priest and parishioner, between pope and prefect – to overlook and understate matters in such a way that no significant action is taken and followed through.”
Throughout his career, McCarrick seems to have relied on a presumption of inaction to create an almost unassailable power base. It may have appeared to him that, no matter what he did, the authorities would remain inert. Sensing that the Church could take years – even decades – to act, he was able to become one of the world’s most prominent cardinals while leading a double life.
McCarrick’s removal from the clerical state is a welcome and necessary step. But its timing – on the eve of a closely watched safeguarding summit in Rome – suggests it is driven by a desire to achieve a public relations victory amid intense criticism of the Vatican’s handling of the abuse crisis.
How do we thwart future McCarricks? By replacing the presumption of inaction with a presumption of action. It will not be easy to effect such a profound cultural change in a Church with more than a billion members. But it is the only way to restore our credibility.
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