Pope accepts Resignation from US Cardinal in Child Sexual Abuse Scandal

Pope Francis. (Photo by Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images)

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Theodore McCarrick, the archbishop of Washington.

The Telegraph reports that McCarrick, one of America’s most prominent Catholic cardinals, is embroiled in a child abuse scandal.

It was alleged that he sexually abused a 16-year-old almost 50 years ago.

The Vatican on Saturday released a statement confirming the pope’s acceptance of the resignation. The statement read:

Yesterday evening the Holy Father received the letter in which Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Archbishop Emeritus of Washington (USA), presented his resignation as a member of the College of Cardinals.

Pope Francis accepted his resignation from the cardinalate and has ordered his suspension from the exercise of any public ministry, together with the obligation to remain in a house yet to be indicated to him, for a life of prayer and penance until the accusations made against him are examined in a regular canonical trial.

The boy was said to have been abused while he was being measured for a new cassock.

The claim was investigated for the New York archdiocese by a group of jurists, law enforcement experts, parents, psychologists, and religious figures. The group judged that the allegations were “credible and substantiated.”

McCarrick has maintained his innocence.

Photo Credit: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images