Uncle Ted’s Long Shadow

When this era of American ecclesial history is studied by future academics, one figure will loom large: Theodore McCarrick. From his ordination to the priesthood in the 1950s to his rise to the heights of curial influence in the 2000s, from his banishment under Pope Benedict XVI to his rehabilitation under Pope Francis, and finally to his downfall in disgrace in the 2010s, he left a large footprint. McCarrick, a serial predator — The New York Times traced his violations of boys and young men back to 1971; homosexual abuse was a way of life for him — was removed from the clerical state in 2019 after having been found guilty by the Congregation (now Dicastery) for the Doctrine of the Faith of “solicitation in the Sacrament of Confession, and sins against the Sixth Commandment with minors and with adults, with the aggravating factor of the abuse of power.” The criminal sexual assault case against him in a Wisconsin court has been suspended indefinitely after a judge deemed the nonagenarian former cardinal incompetent to stand trial due to dementia. Despite all this, McCarrick’s influence endures.

How so? In the persons of his protégés and partisans.

McCarrick — or Uncle Ted, as he had his victims call him — was once known as the “kingmaker” of the American Catholic Church. He is said to have orchestrated the appointments of several prelates, including Donald Wuerl, Blase Cupich, Joseph Tobin, Kevin Farrell, and Robert McElroy. He even boasted of influencing Francis’s elevation to the papacy (you can find his Oct. 2013 lecture at Villanova University, in which he makes this claim, on YouTube). It has been widely reported that Uncle Ted and Papa Frank had been friends since the latter was archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Yes, McCarrick wormed his way to the top of the hierarchical structure. His fundraising prowess was prodigious, and even in the Church, money talks and opens doors. It also buys accomplices. The decades-long, seemingly institution-wide shielding of this serial homosexual pederast surely involved more clerics than we will ever be allowed to know. He was protected by a mighty many, and for many, many years.

That’s why Francis’s appointment of McElroy, heretofore bishop of San Diego, to McCarrick’s old post as cardinal archbishop of Washington, D.C., this January was met with consternation (he will be installed this month). McCarrick was rumored to have taken an active interest in McElroy’s career. But should we have been shocked?