Vatican City, Jun 20, 2018 / 06:30 am
The Archdiocese of New York announced Wednesday that an investigation it conducted into an allegation of sexual abuse against Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who oversaw multiple U.S. dioceses, has found the accusation to be "credible and substantiated."
In the June 20 statement, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, said the alleged abuse happened nearly 50 years ago while McCarrick was a priest of the New York archdiocese. It is the only such accusation against McCarrick that the archdiocese is aware of, Dolan said.
Once the archdiocese received the allegation, they turned it over to local law enforcement, and it was "thoroughly investigated" by an independent forensics team, Dolan said, noting that McCarrick has maintained his innocence, but is cooperating in the investigation.
The Vatican has been informed of the accusation, and as a result, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, by order of Pope Francis, has prohibited McCarrick from public ministry. No official statement from the Vatican has been released.