Ex-Newark Archbishop McCarrick, defrocked after sex abuse scandal, has died, church says

• Theodore McCarrick, the former Archbishop of Newark who was expelled from the ministry in one of the Catholic Church's most infamous sex abuse scandals, has died, according to a report.
• McCarrick, who also led the Metuchen Diocese, was defrocked after a Vatican investigation determined he sexually molested children and adult seminary students.
• He was accused in at least 10 lawsuits in New Jersey as well as criminal cases in Massachusetts and Wisconsin.

Theodore McCarrick, the former Newark Archbishop expelled from the ministry in one of the Catholic Church’s most infamous sexual abuse scandals, has died, according to published reports and a church official.

McCarrick, who also led the Diocese of Metuchen in the 1980s, died in Missouri, where he had moved in recent years, according to the National Catholic Reporter, which cited two unnamed sources. McCarrick was 94.

His death was confirmed Friday in a statement by Cardinal Robert McElroy of the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., where McCarrick also served before his fall from grace.

Ordained as a priest in New York in 1958, McCarrick would eventually rise to the level of cardinal and become a prominent voice and prodigious fundraiser for the Vatican. But he was defrocked by Pope Francis in 2019 after a Vatican investigation determined he sexually molested adults as well as children.

An internal Vatican investigation found that bishops, cardinals and popes downplayed or dismissed reports of sexual misconduct over many years.

McCarrick served as the Bishop of Metuchen from 1981 to 1986 and as Archbishop of Newark from 1986 to 2000, before he was named Archbishop of Washington. He was accused of abuse in at least 10 lawsuits in New Jersey as well as in two criminal cases in Massachusetts and Wisconsin, becoming the only Catholic cardinal in U.S. history to face child sex abuse charges.

Some of the alleged assaults were reported at a Jersey Shore beach house, where McCarrick allegedly abused seminary students as far back as the 1980s. His time as archbishop of Newark included the purchase of at least two beach homes, including one tied to a mysterious debt, and a pattern of ignoring abuse allegations against priests under his control.

McCarrick was 'prince' of Catholic hierarchy

"In his prime he was the prince of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in the United States for decades," said Bruce Novozinsky, an abuse survivor from Monmouth County and author of the book "Purple Reign: Sexual Abuse and Abuse of Power in the Diocese of Trenton."

"No one, and I mean no one, that was named bishop in the U.S. of a prominent diocese up to 2014 was given the purple-piping without the McCarrick say-so," he said. "He was also a predator who exchanged career paths to young priests and seminarians in exchange for sex [and] transferred known pedophiles from parish to parish."

Father Kenneth Lasch of Pompton Plains, an advocate for victims of clergy abuse, said McCarrick left behind a “terrible legacy.” 

“He left a black mark on the Catholic Church and specifically on those people who knew about his proclivities. For years, rumors were circulating about his way of life. I knew about McCarrick’s behavior in the 1980s and I went to the vicar of clergy at the Archdiocese of Newark and they said they couldn’t do anything about it. So it was known.”

“Of course we have to move on but his story remains a part of church history. It's always going to be there that they [church leaders] defaulted on their responsibility.”

One of the criminal cases stemmed from a Bergen County native, James Grein, who said McCarrick molested him repeatedly as a boy and young man, including at a family wedding in Massachusetts.

Criminal cases dropped

The allegations prompted a prosecution in Massachusetts but that and the Wisconsin criminal case were dropped in recent years after McCarrick was deemed not competent to stand trial. McCarrick denied any wrongdoing.

"He groomed me but I escaped by the Grace of God," Grein said in an email to NorthJersey.com and The Record in 2023. "He may escape punishment from man but his maker will have the final judgment."

On Friday, Grein said McCarrick had "ruined my entire life. Completely. The idea that he’s gone is freeing."

Dugan McGinley, an assistant religion professor at Rutgers University, said McCarrick's story is a lesson that "the Catholic respect for hierarchy needs to be balanced with a healthy dose of vigilance. All church leaders, whether they lean more conservative or liberal, must be held accountable for their actions and inactions.

"Just because any pope or bishop is beloved by a certain segment of the church, they are still human, and Catholics should expect transparency from all of them. Hopefully, McCarrick's story will be remembered as a cautionary tale of a church that allowed clericalism to get in the way of justice."