Cardinal Theodore McCarrick Priest who led child protection charged in abuse case
A retired priest of the US Diocese of Arlington, who for seven years oversaw the diocese’s programme on protecting minors from clerical sexual abuse, was indicted shortly before Christmas on two counts of sexually abusing a minor.
A trial is scheduled next October for Fr Terry Specht, 68, who now lives in Donegal, Pennsylvania.
The priest was the director of the diocese’s Office of Child Protection from 2004-2011. Fr Specht was indicted on two felony counts related to sexual abuse of a child under age 13. The indictment said the assault took place in 2000, when Fr Specht was chaplain and assistant principal at Paul VI Catholic High School in Fairfax.
Two separate allegations about Fr Specht were brought to the Arlington Diocese: one in 2012 and the other in 2019. “The diocese immediately reported each allegation to law enforcement,” according to a statement from the Arlington Diocese.
“In 2012, Fr Specht was placed on administrative leave related to the initial allegation and the Diocese of Arlington’s Review Board conducted an investigation. The review board found the allegation to be inconclusive, and law enforcement never brought charges related to the 2012 allegation,” the statement said.
As omicron spreads, churches welcome German triage ruling
Bishop Georg Bätzing, president of the German bishops’ conference, has welcomed the decision of the Federal Constitutional Court ordering the parliament to immediately establish rules to protect people with disabilities from losing out in triage decisions made during the coronavirus pandemic.
The German Catholic news agency KNA reported that Bishop Bätzing said it was an important signal for the protection of people with disabilities from discrimination. Triage refers to deciding which patients are to be treated first if medical assistance cannot be provided to everyone. “The community faces the urgent task of learning from the pandemic and quickly drawing the necessary conclusions to ensure sufficient medical care for the population, even in difficult situations,” Bishop Bätzing said
Bishop Bätzing noted that the state had a concrete duty to protect its citizens and to ensure that no such discrimination occurs. “In addition, it must do everything possible to ensure that the health system is not overburdened in the first place”, he said. The court said on December 28 that lawmakers had failed to take precautionary measures “so that no one is disadvantaged because of a disability in the allocation of vital intensive care resources not available to all.”
Date set for former Cardinal McCarrick’s hearing
Proceedings before a criminal trial involving former Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick will continue March 3 in Massachusetts, where he faces three counts of sexually assaulting a teenager in the 1970s.
A second pretrial hearing took place on December 21 to continue on to the next phase in March.
The hearing was preceded by one in October, following the former cardinal’s arraignment in early September in Dedham District Court, where he pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Though he was present during the arraignment, McCarrick was not present during the pretrial hearings.
Though he wasn’t a priest in Massachusetts, state prosecutors have said the alleged abuses of the teenager first took place at a wedding reception in 1974 on the grounds of Wellesley College, just outside Boston, and continued over the years in different states.