Vatican report about ex-cardinal angers men who allege abuse

Men who have come forward with allegations of abuse by former Cardinal Theodore Mccarrick expressed disgust, frustration and outrage after an internal Vatican report outlined what was known about the clergyman’s behavior — and what was ignored.

“It was very emotional to read. It was very emotional because there were so many opportunities to stop him. So many opportunities to stop him. And maybe my life would be different, maybe I wouldn’t be a victim if someone had,” said John Bellocchio, a New Jersey man who has sued both Mccarrick and the Holy See, alleging the prelate abused him in the 1990s when he was a teenager.

In interviews with The Associated Press, Bellocchio and others demanded that the Vatican institute changes to ensure nothing like what was described in Tuesday’s extraordinary report can happen again.

Spanning 449 pages, the internal investigation found that bishops, cardinals and popes downplayed or dismissed multiple reports of sexual misconduct by the now-90year-old Mccarrick, who as one of the highest-ranking, most visible

Roman Catholic officials in the U.S. traveled the world and hobnobbed with presidents.

Mccarrick was defrocked by Pope Francis in 2019 after a separate Vatican investigation determined he sexually abused minors as well as adults. An attorney for Mccarrick, who now lives as a layman in a residence for priests, declined to comment on the report.

“It’s crushing,” said Geoffrey Downs, who in a lawsuit filed in New Jersey accused Mccarrick of abusing him when he was a teenager and serving as an altar boy. “It’s just crushing to those of us who went through it because you realize how small and incidental you are to these creatures, predators.”

Both Bellocchio and Downs suggested the church create lay review boards as a way to give parishioners an actionable role in holding priests accountable.

Bellocchio said Francis should consider removing former Pope John Paul II, who took most of the blame in the report, from the calendar of saints. John Paul appointed Mccarrick archbishop of Washington, D.C., in 2000, despite having commissioned an inquiry that confirmed he slept with seminarians, according to the report.

ALESSANDRA TARANTINO/AP 2005 Then-cardinal Theodore Mccarrick (left), seen in 2005, is the subject of a two-year Vatican investigation published Tuesday. Mccarrick was defrocked in 2019 after the Vatican determined that years of rumors that he was a sexual predator were true.