Theodore McCarrick, ex-cardinal and Archbishop of Washington D.C., to face sex abuse charges in Boston court
CBSN
Rome — Theodore McCarrick, the former Archbishop of Washington D.C., was due in court on Friday to face child sex abuse charges. McCarrick was stripped of his rank as a cardinal and removed from the priesthood after the Vatican confirmed other allegations of abuse against him.
Now 91, McCarrick was scheduled to be arraigned on Friday at the Dedham District Court outside Boston. He was expected to enter a plea in the criminal case on charges filed a month ago, accusing him of sexually assaulting a teenage boy almost 50 years ago in Massachusetts. As CBS News correspondent Chris Livesay reports from Rome, it was to be a profound day of reckoning for the disgraced former cardinal, as well as for the Catholic Church. Victims hope that the criminal trial of the former prelate will send a strong signal that no one, no matter how powerful, is above the law.Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.