Ex-cardinal sent cash to church leaders during abuse probe: report

Disgraced former cardinal Theodore McCarrick sent hundreds of thousands of dollars in church funds to Catholic leaders as he faced mounting sexual abuse allegations, according to a report.

McCarrick since 2001 sent $600,000 in checks to high-ranking church officials — including several directly in charge of assessing claims against him — all while the Catholic church faced criticism for failing to act on McCarrick’s alleged misbehavior, an investigation by the Washington Post found.

As McCarrick doled out the vast sums of cash, he rose to prominence, becoming entrenched at the highest levels of the U.S Catholic Church despite accusations dating back to 2000.

While serving as archbishop, McCarrick pulled money from an account at the Archdiocese of Washington. Recipients of McCarrick’s generosity included Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, who received $90,00 and $291,000, respectively, according to the report.

McCarrick was defrocked in February after Vatican officials found him guilty of soliciting for sex while hearing confession and of “sins” with both minors and adults. He was the first cardinal to have been defrocked.

He had previously served as a major fundraiser for the Vatican and acted as a spokesman for US bishops when they undertook a no-tolerance policy for sexually abusive priests in 2002.

The decision made McCarrick the highest-ranking Catholic clergyman to be pushed out of the priesthood through the church’s sex-abuse scandals.

Clerics denied to the Washington Post that the money had any impact on the church’s decision-making, describing the funs as “customary gifts among Catholic leaders” during Christmas time or as a “gesture of appreciation.”

A spokesman for Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, who received $6,500 from McCarrick, told the paper that the gifts “never had any effect on the Cardinal’s decision-making as an official of the Holy See.”  The Vatican declined comment.

An attorney for McCarrick, Barry Coburn, declined to comment on the findings of the Washington Post investigation. In the past, McCarrick has denied wrongdoing.

McCarrick was ordained as a priest in New York in 1958 and served as parochial vicar for Blessed Sacrament Parish in Manhattan until 1981.

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