Church: "Credible" Abuse Accusations Against Cardinal McCarrick

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He cannot go to jail unless he has violated the criminal laws of the USA. If the allegation is 50 years old, it’s highly likely that the statute of limitations has expired by now for whatever criminal act he may have committed, and even if he could somehow be charged he would need to be found guilty or admit guilt under the legal process. After 50 years it’s hard to have a court case (witnesses die off and so on), which is one reason why we generally have statutes of limitations for crimes other than murder.
 
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It sounds like the allegations are credible. Here is a story from NCR:

www.ncregister.com

Abuse Allegations Against Cardinal Theodore McCarrick Are ‘Credible’

In the June 20 statement, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York, said the alleged abuse happened nearly 50 years ago.
www.ncregister.com www.ncregister.com

The Archdiocese of New York announced Wednesday that an investigation it conducted into allegations of sexual abuse against Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who oversaw multiple major U.S. dioceses, has found the accusations to be “credible and substantiated.”
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I get so tired of hearing about 50 year old cases that suddenly become today’s news.

But if the allegations are in fact credible, it is also an indictment of people who kept so quiet for so long.
 
He did seem a lot more concerned that he could have broken the story than the actual story itself.
 
He cannot go to jail unless he has violated the criminal laws of the USA. If the allegation is 50 years old, it’s highly likely that the statute of limitations has expired by now for whatever criminal act he may have committed, and even if he could somehow be charged he would need to be found guilty or admit guilt under the legal process. After 50 years it’s hard to have a court case (witnesses die off and so on), which is one reason why we generally have statutes of limitations for crimes other than murder.
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This is fair enough. But I’d say that this is more a case for the ecclesiastical courts, regardless. I know that they don’t wield the punitive powers of American courts, but if McCarrick’s guilty, one hopes he faces more than the mere enforced low profile that, at his age, amounts to “time served.”
 
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Given McCarrick’s age, he may well die before any sort of process, whether legal or ecclesiastical, is finished, and is likely to die soon in any event, so any punishment at this point would be limited. The publicity from this is likely a significant punishment for him given that he has enjoyed a high-profile position for a long time.

I am more concerned with the fact that he wrote some guidelines and policy for dealing with such situations. I would hope that those are not problematic and that people don’t lose confidence in them due to McCarrick’s involvement.
 
Did everyone miss that this happened half a century ago? Okay, so the Holy See considers the allegation credible and took action. That is not the same as the man being guilty. Preponderance of the evidence is not always right, even though the Church feels the need to act in such a case.
 
JimG said:
I get so tired of hearing about 50 year old cases that suddenly become today’s news.

But if the allegations are in fact credible, it is also an indictment of people who kept so quiet for so long.
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There is so much wrong in your comments…you have no clue…
 
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People who stay silent bear no legal responsibility for future crime, and only God can decide if the bear any moral responsibility. But it does make me wonder, as pedophilia almost always involves multiple victims, that if there is no more victims over the past few decades, what changed, if he is guilty?
 
JimG said:
I get so tired of hearing about 50 year old cases that suddenly become today’s news. But if the allegations are in fact credible, it is also an indictment of people who kept so quiet for so long.
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An indictment of people who were coldly self centered, quite contrary to the vows they took. Even when the cases came to light, there have been many cold and calculated attempts to prevent any financial compensation. Cardinal Dolan himself was involved in one while Bishop of Milwaukee, honestly I have no respect for him because of it.
 
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I have no idea what the cardinal did or did not do. I still find it rather hard to comprehend that a case that is 50 years old can be found to be “credible and substantiated” so easily. Perhaps the evidence is clear and convincing even though it happened 50 years ago. But if that is the case, why was it not reported and acted upon a half century ago?
 
JimG said:
But if that is the case, why was it not reported and acted upon a half century ago?
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If it had been reported 50 years ago (and for all we know, maybe it was), it would likely not have been acted on.

50 years ago was the 1960s and many authority figures would have likely just told a teen reporting clergy sexual abuse that they were lying or making it up and maybe punished the teen.

If someone had believed the teen, such as a parent, we might have had a situation where the parent went down to the pastor or the bishop and blew their stack and then nothing documented happened except the priest was internally warned, moved or disciplined (an example of this was shown in The Keepers).
 
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