VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Cardinal Kevin J. Farrell, head of the Vatican office for laity and family, said he was "shocked" when he heard allegations of years of sexual abuse and harassment by Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, the man who ordained him a bishop and whom he served as an auxiliary bishop for six years.
"I was shocked, overwhelmed; I never heard any of this before in the six years I was there with him," Cardinal Farrell told Catholic News Service July 24.
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The Irish-born cardinal was incardinated in the Archdiocese of Washington in 1984, and shortly after Cardinal McCarrick was named archbishop of Washington in 2000, the future Cardinal Farrell was named his vicar general.
The Vatican official said he had never met Cardinal McCarrick until Cardinal McCarrick became archbishop of Washington.
"I was shocked, overwhelmed; I never heard any of this before in the six years I was there with him," Cardinal Farrell told Catholic News Service July 24.
In late June, Cardinal McCarrick, the 88-year-old retired archbishop of Washington, said he would no longer exercise any public ministry "in obedience" to the Vatican after an allegation he abused a teenager 47 years ago in the Archdiocese of New York was found credible. The cardinal has said he is innocent.
The Archdiocese of Washington said Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, "at the direction of our Holy Father, Pope Francis, has instructed Cardinal McCarrick that he is to refrain from any public ministry or activity until a definite decision is made."
Since then, at least one other person has come forward claiming Cardinal McCarrick sexually abused him as a child, and several former seminarians have claimed that the cardinal would invite groups of them to a beach house and insist individual members of the group share a bed with him.
"I worked in the chancery in Washington and never, no indication, none whatsoever," Cardinal Farrell said. "Nobody ever talked to me about this and I was involved, heavily involved," in investigating and confronting the problem of clerical sexual abuse for the Archdiocese of Washington, especially after the U.S. bishops approved their charter for child protection in 2002.
Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington said in late June that he had requested a review of all the Archdiocese of Washington's records. "Based on that review, I can report that no claim -- credible or otherwise -- has been made against Cardinal McCarrick during his time here in Washington."
" I never heard any of this before in the six years I was there with him"
To have lived in the same house as McCarrick for six years and not have heard about this is simply unbelievable.
No mention is made of how James, one of McCarrick's victims who has come forward, contradicts this statement by Cardinal Farrell and claims that he knew.
I note that the reporter also didn't mention that Cardinal Farrell knew Marcial Maciel of the Legionaries of Christ when the pederast and sex fiend was running the show there, according Paul Lennon, who helped blow the lid off the legionaries scandal with his book Our Father, Who Art in Bed. What bumbling luck to have been an associate of two of the worst sex criminals in church history (even living with one!) and remained totally innocent. Should we nickname Cardinal Farrell the Pink Panther: always getting in trouble while being totally innocent himself? Or maybe Farrell is just lying and America Magazine isn't willing to go to the victims and ask the hard questions (e.g., like what they think of his denials and whether this is a pattern with Cardinal Farrell).