McCarrick Laicized: The End of the Beginning

Last updated on: February 16, 2019 at 7:03 am by Fr. Matthew P. Schneider, LC

McCarrick Laicized: The End of the Beginning 2019-02-16T07:03:32-05:00 Fr. Matthew P. Schneider, LC

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

McCarrick in 2008 (World Economic Forum CC BY-SA 2.0 commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Theodore_Cardinal_McCarrick.jpg)

Today, Mr. Theodore McCarrick is no longer a cleric: he has no right to celebrate any of the sacraments and cannot present himself as a priest or bishop. This is the end of the road for him as far as what the Church can do. The recent scandal – based on episcopal misbehavior and a wink wink attitude to sexually active clerics – began when credible and sustained accusations against him came out last June. McCarrick was removed from ministry and resigned as a Cardinal. Right after, all kinds of stories began circulating in public about things that had been only said in private but seemed widely known before: McCarrick also abused seminarians. Priests I know from several states away knew about these accusations a decade ago.

This is the end for him, but it cannot be the end of resolving the underlying issues.

McCarrick Laicized

As Crux reported early this morning:

The Vatican announced Saturday that Pope Francis has approved the removal of ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick from the clerical state, colloquially known as “laicization” or “defrocking.” […]

A Vatican statement Saturday said McCarrick had 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.”

The statement also said McCarrick was notified of the verdict on Friday. According to the statement, Pope Francis has recognized the decision as “definitive” with no possibility of appeal.

The end of dealing with McCarrick personally reminds me of a Churchill Quote from 1942 – partway through WWII), which I think is applicable.

Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

What Still Needs to Happen

We still have the meetings next week in Rome which will deal with sexual abuse of minors. Even those are insufficient. The issue is now the coverup and other twisted sexual relationships priests or bishops engage in. We need to eliminate all kinds of misconduct and coverup, not just priests on minors.

Even before the revelations about McCarrick came out, I wrote about how we Catholics are often naïve about sexual immorality. In the meantime, several priests have approached me anonymously to speak about how in their dioceses, people pretend to ignore priestly misbehavior even when it is pretty blatant and known. We have also seen how other bishops besides McCarrick were treated after accusations in ways so soft that they would have been unthinkable for priests in the current environment. I don’t have exact practical solutions to resolve these issues but we need to resolve them. The Catholic Church is the bride of Christ so we must cleanse her of such filth. Then, we can really set forth to evangelize this culture.

Note: I wrote most of this in preparation, and between writing it and the event happening, I saw John Allen Jr. made a similar commentary.

Previous Post

February 12, 2019

Amoris Laetitia: Communion for the Divorced & Remarried?

Next Post

February 19, 2019 Open Letter to Priests and Bishops: Resign If You Need to

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Autism Bioethics Book Review Business and Economics Catholic Social Teaching Culture Diocesan Life Disability Discipleship Euthanasia Family Life Genetics Global Politics History Immigration Inspiration Interview Liturgy Moral Theology My Life News Analysis Original Articles Prayer Privacy Pro-Life Science Sexual orientation or identity Social Media Sports Technology Theology Uncategorized US Politics Vatican

Select a Month March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz