Judge finds defrocked Cardinal McCarrick not competent to stand trial in sex abuse case

Pope Francis officially defrocked McCarrick four years ago

Published: August 30, 2023 2:10pm

Updated: August 30, 2023 2:27pm

A Massachusetts judge on Wednesday found a defrocked Roman Catholic cardinal not competent to stand trial in a sex abuse case.

Cardinal Theodore McCarrick – formerly of the church's Washington, D.C., dioceses – was charged with sexually assaulting a teenage boy in Massachusetts decades ago, according to ABC News.

Dedham District Court Judge Paul McCallum dismissed the case against the 93-year-old McCarrick following testimony from Dr. Kerry Nelligan, a forensic psychologist who testified the defendant has dementia and suffers significant cognitive deficits.

Pope Francis officially defrocked McCarrick four years ago, following allegations he molested a 16-year-old boy decades earlier.

McCarrick resigned from the College of Cardinals in 2018 at the pope's insistence, but only after an accusation that he molested a 16-year-old altar boy while serving at the Archdiocese of New York was found credible by the church, ABC also reports.

In addition, he was also charged in Wisconsin this spring for sexual assault, in connection with an incident that occurred in 1977.