The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org. February 18, 2019 Pope Francis Defrocks Cardinal McCarrick over Sexual Abuse Crimes ----------------------------------------------------------------- Pope Francis defrocked U.S. Cardinal Theodore Mc Carrick Saturday, after the Vatican found him guilty of sex crimes against children and adults, including using confessions to solicit sex. Mc Carrick was once considered to be the most powerful man in the American Catholic Church. The 88-year-old former archbishop of Washington, D.C., is the highest-ranking member of the Catholic Church to be defrocked over the sex abuse scandal-which means he will be stripped of his duties and status as a priest. This marks the first time an American cardinal has ever been removed from the priesthood. This is Anne Barrett Doyle, an advocate for survivors of sexual abuse by clergy members. Anne Barrett Doyle: "The bishops who surrounded Mc Carrick and knew, or should have known, that he was a sexual predator, this, we believe, includes the pope himself, in that he knew, or should have known, from the earliest days of his papacy, that this prominent cardinal already had a file on him at the Vatican." .