ROME (Reuters) – Disgraced former U.S. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick has been expelled from the Roman Catholic priesthood following allegations against him, including sexual abuse of minors, the Vatican said on Saturday. The defrocking was announced ahead of next week’s meeting at the Vatican between the heads of national Catholic churches to discuss the global sexual abuse crisis. McCarrick had appealed the decision but it was upheld and Pope Francis said no further appeal would be allowed. The allegations against McCarrick date to decades ago when he was still rising to the top of the U.S. church hierarchy. McCarrick, who became a powerbroker as Archbishop of Washington, D.C., from 2001 to 2006, is living in seclusion in a remote friary in Kansas.

Source: Huffington Post February 16, 2019 09:13 UTC