Ex-cardinal and former Archbishop of Washington Theodore McCarrick was defrocked earlier this year after two men accused him of sexually abusing them when they were boys.
Now, The Washington Post reports at least seven more men have come forward with similar accusations.
One wrote an essay posted online by his attorney Thursday, Kevin T. Mulhearn of Orangeburg, New York. The man does not reveal his real name in the essay, and asks the reader to call him Nathan.
Nathan wrote that he never thought of speaking out publicly until he read a Slate magazine interview published last month, in which McCarrick said “I’m not as bad as they paint me,” and “I do not believe that I did the things that they accused me of.”
Nathan said his family feels guilty for not knowing about the abuse, and he feels guilty for not having the courage to tell them.
“The only person who should be feeling guilty about any of this is now giving magazine interviews from inside a friary and telling the whole world that he doesn’t feel guilty about anything,” Nathan wrote. “God bless those Capuchin monks. They are better men than me.”
Nathan said earlier news reports that the Vatican was investigating a third accusation of sexual abuse against McCarrick were true, but not completely accurate. He said that’s because he and several other accusers came forward to investigators at the same time.
“Collectively, we were able to provide law enforcement with names, dates, times, locations, who was present, supporting evidence and related documentation covering hundreds of Church-related or fundraising-related overnight trips between the years 1970 and 1990 that, as fate would have it, all resulted in McCarrick sharing a bed with a young Catholic boy,” Nathan wrote, adding that the victims were almost always between 12 and 16 years old.
At the end of the essay, under the heading “Suggested Takeaways,” Nathan wrote:
“At the end of the day, I think the true story of Theodore McCarrick is a story about a man who was blessed by God with extraordinary natural gifts. When he used those gifts for the greater glory of God, he did amazing and impactful things that helped a lot of people and, in some cases, saved a lot of lives.”
“When he used those gifts to satisfy his avarice, greed, and lust, he caused an unconscionable amount of physical, emotional, and spiritual harm.”
