Cardinal McCarrick resigns amid sex abuse claims
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has accepted U.S. prelate Theodore McCarrick’s offer to resign from the College of Cardinals after allegations of sexual abuse, including one involving an 11-year-old boy, and ordered him to conduct a “life of prayer and penance” in a home to be designated by the pontiff until a church trial is held, the Vatican said Saturday.
Francis acted swiftly after receiving McCarrick’s letter of resignation Friday evening, after recent weeks have brought a spate of allegations that the 88-year-old prelate in the course of his distinguished clerical career had sexually abused both boys and adult seminarians.