McCarrick Mentally Unfit to Stand Trial Says State-Hired Expert
World Economic Forum, CC BY-SA 2.0
CV NEWS FEED// Theodore McCarrick, the former Cardinal accused of sexually assaulting multiple minors, is mentally unfit to stand trial, a Massachusetts state expert informed the Dedham District Court this week.
The expert, hired by the state to judge McCarrick’s competence, informed the court of his analysis in a June 29 hearing.
The recommendation does not mean that charges against McCarrick have been dropped. A court hearing on August 30 will determine if the case against McCarrick will proceed.
McCarrick, 92, faces three counts of indecent exposure and assault against a person over the age of 14.
The charges stem from an alleged encounter between McCarrick and a then-sixteen-year-old boy at a 1974 wedding reception in Wellesley, Massachusetts. The accuser, James Grein, alleges that McCarrick sexually molested him during the reception. In 2019, McCarrick pleaded not guilty to the charges.
“He sexually and spiritually abused me,” Grein said.
McCarrick’s lawyers filed a motion in February to declare him mentally unfit to stand trial. The court ordered that Dr. David Schretlen, a professor of psychiatry at John Hopkins University, assess McCarrick at his home in Dittmer, Missouri. McCarrick’s lawyers said that the neurological exam found that McCarrick suffers from a “severe cognitive disorder” that makes it hard for him to perform basic tasks, let alone think clearly.
McCarrick was also charged this past April with sexually assaulting a minor in the state of Wisconsin.
Other allegations against McCarrick have surfaced since the Archdiocese of New York first announced in June 2018 that McCarrick had been removed from public ministry at the request of Pope Francis over credible allegations that he abused an altar server. The following month, McCarrick rescinded his position in the College of Cardinals and was laicized in 2019 after the Vatican found him canonically guilty of sexual crimes with minors and “abuse of power”.
Grein, now 64, says his family was close friends with McCarrick during his childhood. He said that he would call McCarrick “Uncle Ted” and that McCarrick abused him multiple times during family functions and even in the confessional. The abuse started while McCarrick was still a priest for the Archdiocese of New York.
McCarrick acknowledges that he knew Grein but says that the accusations are false and that he is innocent.
“Yes. I remember him (Grein),” McCarrick said in a 2021 interview. “The things he said about me are not true.”
McCarrick served as the Bishop of Metuchen, New Jersey, and the Archbishop of Newark, New Jersey. Following his appointment as a Cardinal, he served as Archbishop of Washington, DC, from 2001–2006. He is also accused of molesting and sexually assaulting seminarians when he was a bishop.
