According to documents filed by the Wellesley Police Department in the Dedham District Court, former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick has been criminally charged with three counts of indecent assault and battery on a person over 14 years of age.

In a Zoom video conference call held in January, the unnamed victim relayed events that allegedly occurred at his brother’s wedding in June 1974. According to the victim, McCarrick took him aside to touch and kiss his genitalia, under the guise of him “being mischievous at home” and needing to recite specific prayers so that “God can redeem you of your sins.”

The complaint continues to allege that this behavior not only happened once in 1974, but repeatedly occurred for years into the victim’s adulthood, in various cities near Wellesley, Massachusetts. Mitchell Garabedian, a well-known attorney representing church sexual abuse victims has taken on the case.

A statement released by Garabedian read:

Historically, this is the first time ever in the United States that a Cardinal has been criminally charged with a sexual crime against a minor. … It takes an enormous amount of courage for a sexual abuse victim to report having been sexually abused to investigators and proceed through the criminal process.

McCarrick, who is currently 91 years old, resigned from the College of Cardinals in 2018. He has previously maintained his innocence in regards to past sexual abuse allegations in the states of New Jersey, New York, and California. He has been issued a summons to appear in court for an arraignment on August 26 of this year.

Although these allegations are rampant amongst members of the Catholic church, McCarrick would become the first-ever high-ranking clergy member to be charged for crimes relating to sexual abuse of a minor in the United States.