Theodore McCarrick, the Blessed Mother and Pope St. John Paul II

National Catholic Register, 24 June 2020

The disgraced ex-cardinal used his influence in 1993 to send a treasure icon of the Blessed Mother to the Polish Pope for safekeeping.

Although June 20 was the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, much of the Catholic news marked a sad anniversary instead.

It was two years ago that the Archdiocese of New York set off an earthquake with the revelation that then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick had been accused of sexual abuse of a minor in the early 1970s. Subsequent developments led to McCarrick’s dismissal from the clerical state in February 2019.

In October 2018, the Vatican promised a review of the all the files on McCarrick, to answer a troubling question: How did a man with so many rumors about him rise so high?

That report is still being prepared, but the coincidence of the McCarrick anniversary with Immaculate Heart of Mary feast helps answer another, related question. It is already known that McCarrick was skilled at deflecting rumors — which is all that there were until after he was appointed archbishop of Washington. But why did he earn the papal favor of St. John Paul II to get the appointment to Washington in the first place? Part of the reason he was able to delay his day of reckoning was because he was held in good esteem and elevated to the highest offices. Why? What was it about McCarrick that attracted favorable attention under John Paul?

McCarrick was an ambitious young cleric favored with the patronage of Cardinal Terence Cooke of New York in the 1970s. That he would be made a young auxiliary of New York followed, and at age 51, he became bishop of a new diocese, Metuchen in New Jersey. From there he rose to become the archbishop of Newark in 1986. There is nothing unremarkable about a well-connected cleric with a powerful patron becoming an archbishop. But why subsequently Washington and a cardinal?

There is a Marian dimension to the story that helps to explain. It relates to several principal themes of the pontificate of Pope St. John Paul II: Marian devotion, ecumenical engagement with the Orthodox, the noble heritage of eastern Christianity and the singular role of Fatima in the life and ministry of the Polish pope.

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