Former US cardinal Theodore McCarrick, charged at the end of July with sexual assault on a teenager, was notified Friday (September 3) of the charges against him in a court in the northeastern United States, to which he pleaded no guilty, according to the victim's lawyer.
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The lawyer for the alleged victim welcomed this formal indictment. "
Today, History is being written,
" responded Mitchell Garabedian, in a statement sent to AFP, believing that his client's action in court sent a "
message of morality
" to Catholic Church. "
The plaintiff, a pioneer, sends the Catholic Church the message that his reign of sexual assault by bishops and cardinals will be fought head-on,
" added Mitchell Garabedian.
Theodore McCarrick, 91, arrived in court in Dedham, Massachusetts, walking bent over using a walker and under a few boos, can be seen in videos posted on social media.
He left free after paying a deposit of 5,000 dollars, according to legal documents consulted by AFP.
First criminal proceedings
This former Archbishop of Washington was defrocked in 2019, an almost unprecedented sanction in Church history for a cardinal, after the Vatican found him guilty of sexually assaulting at least one teenager in the 1970s. and to have had inappropriate sexual behavior with adult seminarians. He is now facing three counts of "
sexual assault on a child over 14
".
Prosecutors accuse him of touching the 16-year-old inappropriately while they were together at a Massachusetts university for the marriage of the alleged victim's brother, according to legal documents viewed in late July by the AFP.
According to the teenager, now a man in his sixties, the ex-cardinal had lured him into a room and touched his genitals while "
reciting prayers
", according to the complaint.
Theodore McCarrick has been the subject of several civil court proceedings, but these are the first criminal proceedings against him.
He is the highest Catholic official to be ousted in the United States for alleged acts of sexual violence, a case that has rocked the Church in the country.
This court case takes place in Massachusetts, an American state marked by sex scandals involving the Catholic Church, notably illustrated in the film "
Spotlight
" (2015), which tells how reporters from the
Boston Globe
revealed how the local clergy had covered sexual abuse by some 90 priests in and around Boston over several decades.
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The American Church received, between 1950 and 2016, complaints from more than 18,500 victims of sexual abuse committed by more than 6,700 members of the clergy, according to the site bishop-accountability.org.