Doe says he recognized his own experience, and those of other minors abused by McCarrick, in the account of James Grien, initially published anonymously in the New York Times last year.
"To varying degrees, Grein's story was our story. I don't know James Grein, have never spoken to him, and I never even knew he existed until that moment, but there were too many details in that interview that only a person in our exclusive club would know."
The report comes just weeks before the U.S. bishops will meet for their third assembly since the McCarrick scandal broke in June 2018. In November 2018, the bishops defeated 83-137 a resolution that would have urged the Vatican to release a comprehensive dossier on McCarrick.
In October 2018, Pope Francis ordered an internal Vatican investigation into the career of the disgraced McCarrick. Results of that investigation have not been released. While many have criticized the delay in making public a report into McCarrick, Doe said he was undeterred by the apparent delay.
"I have no insights at all into who is writing that report and how all of that will work. What I can tell you is that if they had completed and issued their report before today, I would be sitting here telling you that they closed the book too soon," he wrote.
Calling McCarrick a "walking jurisdictional nightmare," Doe said it is important not to "underestimate the sheer volume of information that began coming in last year, the number of different channels that information came in through, and all of the various investigative processes and law enforcement agencies that have been involved with the examination of the information."
"I am personally inclined to grant all of the investigators all the time they need to do whatever work is necessary to get this done right once and for all," he said.
Sources in Rome and Washington have confirmed to CNA that large quantities of documents and a detailed report on archdiocesan records have already been compiled and forwarded to Rome, but the Archdiocese of Washington has repeatedly declined to comment on those records.
In June 2019, Newark Cardinal Joseph Tobin told CNA he was precluded by a state attorney general's investigation from releasing the files and reports compiled by his diocese on McCarrick, who was Newark's archbishop from 1986 to 2000. Tobin is believed to have also forwarded a report to the Vatican detailing McCarrick's time in Newark.
Doe wrote that despite seeing the coverage of McCarrick's disgrace, and even though he participated in the canonical process which resulted in the former cardinal's laicization in February, he "never" thought about making a public statement.
"That all changed when I read McCarrick's recent interview with Slate magazine where he attempted to discredit the victims of his sexual abuse while creating further division and confusion within our Church."
(Story continues below)
Subscribe to our daily newsletter
In that interview, McCarrick said he is "not as bad as they paint."
"I do not believe that I did the things that they accused me of," McCarrick said, while going on to suggest that his accusers "were encouraged" to come up with allegations by "enemies" of the former cardinal, pointedly referring to former Vatican diplomat Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano as "a representative of the far right" for coming forward with a series of allegations about McCarrick and apparent Vatican knowledge about his behavior.
Some senior Church officials have told CNA that McCarrick was under consideration for an influential Vatican post in 1999; concerns about the former cardinal's lifestyle are rumored to have played a role in scuttling that plan. McCarrick was nevertheless appointed Washington's archbishop in 2000, where he continued to serve until his retirement in 2006.
Doe said that he was only concerned with the integrity of McCarrick's victims, whom he said McCarrick had further abused by suggesting they were politically motivated.
"I don't have an axe to grind with anyone other than Theodore McCarrick. For me, this is not an attack on our Church. This is not about Conservative vs Liberal. This is not about Straight vs Gay. This is not about Benedict vs. Francis. In my view, those arguments are a distraction."
"For me, this is about our humanity. This is about the criminal, sexual abuse of minors," Doe said.