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New Sex-Abuse Lawsuit Names Theodore McCarrick,
Father Michael Barrett
A new civil sex-abuse lawsuit has been filed against the former cardinal, also naming an Opus Dei priest who is currently a pastor in the Archdiocese of New York.
Matt Hadro,
Christine Rousselle/CNA
August 4, 2021
NEW YORK, N.Y. — A new civil sex-abuse lawsuit has been filed against former cardinal Theodore McCarrick, also naming Opus Dei priest Father Michael Barrett, who is currently a pastor in the Archdiocese of New York.
“My youth, my childhood was robbed from me,” said the plaintiff, who filed the lawsuit anonymously, in the case during the online press conference. He said he was “abused by two people involved in the Catholic Church, and this is Father Michael Barrett and Cardinal McCarrick, who wasn’t a cardinal then, and he should have never become one.”
According to Anderson, the plaintiff was abused by Father Barrett beginning at age 12, and the abuse continued for “three to four years.”
Neither the Archdiocese of New York nor Opus Dei immediately responded to CNA’s request for comment on Wednesday.
The lawsuit was filed under New York’s Child Victims Act, a law that created a temporary window for new civil sex-abuse lawsuits to be filed in old cases where the statute of limitations had already expired. The time window for civil lawsuits expires on Aug. 14.
Father Barrett was then a layperson “heavily involved with Opus Dei” when he allegedly “invited and recruited” the plaintiff to an Opus Dei house, Anderson said. Barrett was “grooming” the plaintiff at that time, which “led to criminal sexual assault.”
Barrett ultimately became a priest with Opus Dei and is currently a pastor at St. Agnes parish in the New York Archdiocese.
The allegations to date to the 1970s. The defendants in the lawsuit are McCarrick, then a priest of the New York Archdiocese and secretary to then-Cardinal Terence Cooke, as well as Barrett, then a lay member of Opus Dei, Anderson explained. The archdiocese was also named in the lawsuit for alleged negligence in McCarrick’s case.
According to the lawsuit, McCarrick abused the plaintiff from 1975 to 1978, when he was approximately 13 to 16 years old. Barrett allegedly abused the plaintiff from approximately 1974 to 1978, according to the lawsuit.
Anderson called on Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York to release a list of all clerics the archdiocese has made settlements with, as well as the names of those in the archdiocese known to have committed abuse.
More Clergy Abuse Is Finally Being Prosecuted,
No Thanks To The Church, Garabedian Says
August 6, 20215:30 PM ET
MARY LOUISE KELLY, AYEN BIOR, Courtney Dorning
Theodore McCarrick is just the latest Catholic official to face criminal charges for sexual abuse in the U.S. Lawyer Mitchell Garabedian has represented survivors for decades and offers the long view on law enforcement investigations into the Church. Chris Kleponis/Getty Images
At the height of his career, former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick was one of the most influential leaders of the Catholic Church in the U.S., heading the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. Last week, he became the first U.S. Cardinal to be criminally charged with a sexual crime against a minor, making the 91-year-old the highest-ranking Catholic Church official in the country to face criminal charges for clergy sexual abuse.
The fact that McCarrick sexually molested adults and children was already known: A Vatican investigation confirmed the abuse. He'd been defrocked in 2019.
Mitchell Garabedian has settled more than 2,000 clergy sex abuse cases over the past 20-plus years and is the lawyer representing an abuse survivor in a current civil case against McCarrick.
"Cardinal McCarrick was one of the most powerful and influential cardinals in the world. He hobnobbed with presidents: George W. Bush, President Ford, President Carter, President Clinton," Garabedian says. "He was very influential, very powerful, and Cardinal McCarrick right now is a defendant in a criminal case, thanks to the courage of a brave clergy sexual abuse victim."
Late last year, the Vatican released a report detailing both abuses committed by McCarrick and how various internal church investigations into those abuses had begun and then stalled over the years.
"The Catholic Church recognizes that prevention of sexual abuse is an ongoing effort that includes pastoral care and outreach to survivors, reporting allegations to civil authorities, background checks, education and training on keeping children and youth safe, and the implementation of child protection policies at the local level," a spokesperson for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said in a statement to NPR.
They went on to say: "We have made much progress, but we also know that the painful experience of survivors calls us to continual improvement."
Mitchell Garabedian spoke to All Things Considered's Mary Louise Kelly about whether he's seen progress in the way the U.S. justice system has prosecuted these cases, if there's difficulty in building a defense against allegations that may be decades old and if the Church itself has begun to take meaningful action to end systemic abuse.
This interview can be read at npr.
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Catholic clergyman killed in France, suspect reportedly
under police supervision for arson of cathedral
9 Aug, 2021 11:18
A Catholic priest has been killed in Saint-Laurent-sur-Sevre, a commune in the Vendee, by a man who had reportedly been placed under police supervision, having set fire to a cathedral in Nantes in 2020.
On Monday, a Catholic clergyman was found dead in the town of Saint-Laurent-sur-Sevre. The French regional deputy prosecutor, Yannick Le Goater, confirmed that the suspect – a Rwandan national – had been arrested, following earlier reports that he had handed himself in.
Police have said they are not currently treating the incident as an act of terrorism.
In a tweet, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin confirmed the horrific incident and announced that he would travel to the scene of the crime. “[I offer] all my support for the Catholics of our country after the dramatic assassination of a priest in Vendee.”
The victim has been identified as Father Olivier Maire by Bruno Retailleau, senator of the Vendée, who described in a tweet the clergyman’s death as “a great loss.”
Retailleau stated that Maire had been hosting the perpetrator at the time. “His death testifies to the kindness of this priest whom I knew well and whose depth of faith I had been able to appreciate,” he added.
Sources told BFM TV that the suspect had already served prison time for his role in a fire at Nantes Cathedral in 2020 and was under police supervision.
The suspect is a Rwandan national and a voluntary sacristan (church assistant). Having confessed to being the cause of the Nantes fire, he was imprisoned for several months and had been released pending trial.
As part of his supervision, he had been hosted for several months by the community of Montfortians. Maire was reportedly the chair of the community.
The Rwandan national was ordered to leave the country back in 2019 by immigration authorities, but did not do so. Le Goater said that the Rwandan national had to remain in the country for the duration of the investigation into the Nantes cathedral fire.
Saint Laurent sur Sevre, FR
Catholic high school can fire staff in same-sex marriages,
court rules
By Michael Gryboski,
Christian Post Reporter
Thursday, August 12, 2021
Roncalli High School of Indianapolis, Indiana. | Facebook/Roncalli High School
A federal court has ruled against a counselor who was fired from a Catholic high school in Indiana because she was in a same-sex marriage, citing the legal standard of ministerial exception.
Lynn Starkey had sued the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis and Roncalli High School for firing her for being in a marital relationship that conflicted with Church teaching.
United States District Judge Richard Young ruled Wednesday that the Catholic institution was free to fire Starkey on the basis of its religious standards for employment and that a secular court had no place to interfere in the decision.
“When the state interferes with these types of employment decisions, it violates both the Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses of the First Amendment,” wrote Young.
“The ministerial exception is not limited to claims of religious discrimination; it bars all claims of discrimination under Title VII, including discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.”
The court went on to note that Starkey’s “work in helping shape Roncalli's educational and spiritual environment weigh heavily in favor of applying the ministerial exception.”
“[Starkey] helped plan all-school liturgies, she delivered the morning prayer on at least a few occasions, she worked with other Administrative Council members to identify ways in which Roncalli can differentiate itself from the local public schools, and she participated in discussion groups about books aimed at enhancing faith formation,” continued Young.
“Moreover, that Starkey characterizes her work as a guidance counselor in purely secular terms does not change the result because it would be inappropriate for this court to draw a distinction between secular and religious guidance offered by a guidance counselor at a Catholic school.”
Becket, a law firm that handles religious liberty cases and helped to represent the archdiocese during the litigation, celebrated the ruling in a statement released Wednesday.
“Today’s ruling is common sense: religious groups have a constitutional right to hire people who agree with their religious beliefs and practices,” said Luke Goodrich, vice president and senior counsel at Becket, as quoted in the statement.
“At all levels of the judiciary, courts have made clear that the government has no place interfering with a religious organization’s decision about who can pass on the faith to the next generation.”
Kathleen DeLaney, the attorney representing Starkey, expressed disappointment at the ruling and is considering the possibility of filing an appeal, for which she has 30 days to decide.
“We’re disappointed with the court's ruling and concerned about its potential impact, not just on Lynn Starkey, but on all educators in religious schools,” said DeLaney, as quoted by the Indianapolis Star.
Starkey and another Roncalli guidance counselor named Shelley Fitzgerald were both terminated from their positions at the high school for being in same-sex marriages.
Regarding the Fitzgerald case, which led to a lawsuit against the archdiocese, the result of which is still pending, Roncalli posted a statement on its Facebook page in 2018 explaining that its staff must adhere to Catholic teaching.
"As role models for students, the personal conduct of every teacher, guidance counselor and administrator and staff member, both at school and away from school, must convey and be supportive of the teachings of the Catholic Church," stated the school in 2018.
"These teachings include, but are not limited to: honoring the dignity of each human life from conception to natural death, care for God's creation, and the belief that all persons are called to respect human sexuality and its expression in the sacrament of marriage between a man and a woman as a sign of God's love and fidelity to His Church."
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