WASHINGTON (AP) — Theodore McCarrick, a once-powerful Catholic cardinal who was defrocked by Pope Francis in 2019 after a Vatican investigation determined he had molested adults and children, has died. He was 94.
Archbishop of Washington Robert McElroy issued a statement Friday confirming McCarrick's death a day earlier but provided no details. His statement focused on those McCarrick abused.
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FILE - In this March 4, 2015, file photo, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick speaks during a memorial service in South Bend, Ind. (Robert Franklin/South Bend Tribune via AP, Pool, File)
FILE - Former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, left, arrives at Dedham District Court, Friday, Sept. 3, 2021, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)
FILE - Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the Archbishop of Washington announces in Hyattsville, Md. Thursday, July 11, 2002 a new initiative to protect children from sexual abuse. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Roggenbrodt, File)
FILE - In this Sept. 23, 2015 file photo, Pope Francis reaches out to hug Cardinal Archbishop emeritus Theodore McCarrick after the Midday Prayer of the Divine with more than 300 U.S. Bishops at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington. (Jonathan Newton / The Washington Post via AP, Pool, File)
FILE - In this Feb. 23, 2001 file photo, U.S. Cardinal Theodore Edgar McCarrick, archbishop of Washington, D.C., shakes hands with Pope John Paul II during the General Audience with the newly appointed cardinals in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican. (AP Photo/Massimo Sambucetti, File)
FILE - Former Washington Archbishop, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick listens during a press conference in Washington, May 16, 2006. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE - Washington Cardinal Theodore McCarrick celebrates a mass inside St. Nereus and Achilleus Church in Rome, Thursday, April 14, 2005. (AP Photo/ Alessandra Tarantino, File)
“At this moment I am especially mindful of those who he harmed during the course of his priestly ministry," McElroy said. "Through their enduring pain, may we remain steadfast in our prayers for them and for all victims of sexual abuse.”
In recent court proceedings, it was disclosed that McCarrick had been diagnosed with dementia. He had been living in Missouri, and Vatican News reported he died there.
The McCarrick scandal created a crisis of credibility for the church, primarily because there was evidence Vatican and U.S. church leaders knew he slept with seminarians but turned a blind eye as McCarrick rose to the top of the U.S. church as an adept fundraiser who advised three popes.
The Vatican's report on its investigation put the lion’s share of blame on a dead saint: Pope John Paul II, who appointed McCarrick archbishop of Washington, D.C., in 2000, despite having commissioned an inquiry that confirmed he slept with seminarians.
The report found that John Paul believed McCarrick’s last-minute, handwritten denial in which he wrote: “I have made mistakes and may have sometimes lacked in prudence, but in the seventy years of my life I have never had sexual relations with any person, male or female, young or old, cleric or lay."
Over several decades, bishops, cardinals and popes dismissed or downplayed reports of McCarrick’s misconduct with young men as he rose through the ranks to become a cardinal and archbishop, according to the investigation.
The report contained heartbreaking testimony from people who tried to raise the alarm about McCarrick’s inappropriate behavior, including with children, in the mid-1980s.
While the findings provided new details about what the Vatican knew and when, it didn’t directly blame or admit that the church’s internal “old boys club” culture allowed McCarrick’s behavior to continue unchecked.
Cardinals and bishops have long been considered beyond reproach. Claims of homosexual behavior are used to discredit or blackmail prelates that they often are dismissed as rumor. There also has been a widespread but unspoken tolerance of sexually active men in what is supposed to be a celibate priesthood.
The report drew on documents from Vatican departments, U.S. dioceses and seminaries and the Vatican’s U.S. Embassy. Investigators interviewed 90 people, including McCarrick’s victims, former seminarians and priests, and officials from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, responded to McCarrick’s death expressing frustration that the ex-cardinal, although defrocked, never stood trial for “the vast harm he inflicted."
“McCarrick may be dead, but his many victims are not,” said Peter Isely, a founding member of SNAP. “We are still here, still living with the harm he caused — and with the church’s failure to stop him. ”
McCarrick, who was the archbishop of Washington from 2000 to 2006, was one of the highest-ranking U.S. church officials accused in a sexual abuse scandal that has seen thousands of priests implicated. He traveled widely, was a gifted fundraiser and spoke multiple languages.
He was a priest in New York City from 1958, when he was ordained, until 1981, when he became bishop of Metuchen, New Jersey. He was archbishop of Newark from 1986 until 2000 and was elevated to cardinal in 2001.
McCarrick participated in the 2005 conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI, presided over the graveside service for Sen. Ted Kennedy at Arlington National Cemetery in 2009, and celebrated Mass with Pope Francis during his 2015 visit to Washington.
This story has been corrected to reflect that McCarrick died Thursday, instead of Friday.
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
FILE - In this March 4, 2015, file photo, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick speaks during a memorial service in South Bend, Ind. (Robert Franklin/South Bend Tribune via AP, Pool, File)
FILE - Former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, left, arrives at Dedham District Court, Friday, Sept. 3, 2021, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)
FILE - Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the Archbishop of Washington announces in Hyattsville, Md. Thursday, July 11, 2002 a new initiative to protect children from sexual abuse. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Roggenbrodt, File)
FILE - In this Sept. 23, 2015 file photo, Pope Francis reaches out to hug Cardinal Archbishop emeritus Theodore McCarrick after the Midday Prayer of the Divine with more than 300 U.S. Bishops at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington. (Jonathan Newton / The Washington Post via AP, Pool, File)
FILE - In this Feb. 23, 2001 file photo, U.S. Cardinal Theodore Edgar McCarrick, archbishop of Washington, D.C., shakes hands with Pope John Paul II during the General Audience with the newly appointed cardinals in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican. (AP Photo/Massimo Sambucetti, File)
FILE - Former Washington Archbishop, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick listens during a press conference in Washington, May 16, 2006. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE - Washington Cardinal Theodore McCarrick celebrates a mass inside St. Nereus and Achilleus Church in Rome, Thursday, April 14, 2005. (AP Photo/ Alessandra Tarantino, File)
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Michigan's new Fab Five threw style points out the door and brought home a prize not even the school's most famous team could capture.
The five fabulous transfers who make up coach Dusty May's starting lineup got down and dirty with the rest of the Wolverines — coming out with the national title trophy Monday night after muscling their way to a 69-63 victory over stingy, stubborn UConn.
Michigan only made two 3-pointers all night.
The Final Four's most outstanding player, Elliot Cadeau, led the Wolverines with 19 points, including the team’s first 3, which came 7:04 into the second half. The second 3, from freshman Trey McKenney, came with 1:50 left and felt like a dagger, giving May's team — which had scored 90 points in five straight March Madness games leading to the final — a nine-point lead.
To no one’s surprise, UConn fought to the finish. Solo Ball banked in a 3 to cut the deficit to four with 37 seconds left — and after two missed free throws, UConn’s Alex Karaban (17 points) barely grazed the rim on a 3 that would’ve cut the deficit to one with 17 seconds left.
Not until McKenney sank two free throws to bring Michigan’s shooting from the line to 25 for 28 for the night could the Wolverines (37-3) kick off the celebration for the program’s second title — the other coming in 1989, a few years before the Fab Five arrived and made two trips to the championship game, but never won a title.
“HAIL TO VICTORS!!!!” Jalen Rose, one of the Fab Five stars, posted on social media. “NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!!!!”
It was the first men's hoops title for the Big Ten since Michigan State in 2000. Including UCLA's win in the women's NCAA Tournament Sunday, the conference swept the football (Indiana) and basketball titles this year.
Michigan won this one with defense, holding UConn to 30.9% shooting — the fourth straight game the Wolverines held their opponent to a season-low field-goal percentage.
“These guys have done it all year,” May said. “When one side of the ball has let us down, the other side has picked it up. Our togetherness defensively ultimately got us over the hump.”
Michigan had to fight for everything. The Wolverines missed their first 11 shots from 3, finished 2 for 15 beyond the arc and won despite the struggles of their best player, Yaxel Lendeborg. Ailing with a hurt knee and foot that kept him from elevating, the graduate transfer from UAB finished with 13 points on 4-of-13 shooting.
“If you’d told me we would shoot it this poorly and (be) dominated on the glass and still find a way to win, I don’t know if I would have believed you,” May said. “This team just found a way all season.”
The two 3-pointers were tied for second fewest by a winning team in the title game, according to Sportradar. Michigan also got outrebounded 22-12 on the offensive glass by a UConn team that would not go away.
“How are you disappointed at all in your group?” UConn coach Dan Hurley said. “These guys have 22 offensive rebounds versus that group of ‘mon-stars’ out there. So, proud of the guys.”
Truth be told, it wasn’t anyone’s prettiest night.
UConn’s hopes of becoming the first team since John Wooden’s UCLA dynasty to win three titles in four seasons came up short, done in by massive foul trouble and its own terrible shooting.
Hurley’s team missed its first 11 shots from 3 in the second half.
Braylon Mullins, the hero of the Duke win that put UConn in the Final Four, finished 4 of 17, though he made a pair of late 3s that kept the game in reach. Tarris Reed Jr., the transfer from Michigan, finished with 13 points and 14 rebounds but never took control.
UConn (34-6) covered the 6 1/2-point spread, and Hurley kept his players out on the court to watch the podium get set up for the victors.
About the only consolation: The Huskies clogged things up, slowed things down and made Michigan beat them at their game.
“It’s complicated, because everyone’s crushed,” Hurley said. “We came here to be out there, doing what those guys are doing right now.”
Nobody did it quite like the Wolverines this year. They came into the title game shooting freely and winning big. In each of their five tournament games, they broke 90 and won by 13 or more.
In this one, they didn’t hit 70 and had to battle to the buzzer. It was ugly — the opposite of an instant classic. And yet, in almost every way, it was the prettiest of them all for Michigan — the one that gives the school what the Fab Five couldn’t manage — namely, a natty.
“Nobody cared about stats the whole season,” Cadeau said. “Nobody cared about nothing but winning. I’m just glad to be part of that.”
Style points aside, this was a championship built from outside — the best team money could buy.
All five Wolverines starters played college ball elsewhere, and all but Nimari Burnett came to Ann Arbor this season. That’s a product of the transfer portal that May has shown no reluctance to use since he arrived from Florida Atlantic two seasons ago.
His ability to form a makeshift group into a winner shows the value of a coach and a culture.
“They might be still calling us mercenaries but we’re the hardest-working team,” Lendenborg said. “We’re the best in college basketball and we’ll be one of the greatest ever.”
Pretty much everyone in the maize and blue would second that.
“Go BLUE. …champions!!! Respect- Love!” was the social media post from another Fab Five icon, Chris Webber.
AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
Michigan forward Yaxel Lendeborg celebrates after defeating UConn in the NCAA college basketball tournament national championship game at the Final Four, Monday, April 6, 2026, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Michigan head coach Dusty May celebrates by cutting down the net after defeating UConn in the NCAA college basketball tournament national championship game at the Final Four, Monday, April 6, 2026, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Members of Michigan celebrate after defeating UConn in the NCAA college basketball tournament national championship game at the Final Four, Monday, April 6, 2026, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Michigan celebrates after defeating UConn in the NCAA college basketball tournament national championship game at the Final Four, Monday, April 6, 2026, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Members of Michigan celebrate after defeating UConn in the NCAA college basketball tournament national championship game at the Final Four, Monday, April 6, 2026, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Michigan's Nimari Burnett (4) and Morez Johnson Jr. celebrate after defeating UConn in the NCAA college basketball tournament national championship game at the Final Four, Monday, April 6, 2026, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Michigan forward Yaxel Lendeborg walks to his bench during a time out during the second half of the NCAA college basketball tournament national championship game against UConn at the Final Four, Monday, April 6, 2026, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
UConn's Tarris Reed Jr. (5) grabs a rebound as Michigan's Elliot Cadeau (3) falls and UConn's Silas Demary Jr. (2) and Michigan's Morez Johnson Jr. (21) watch during the second half of the NCAA college basketball tournament national championship game at the Final Four, Monday, April 6, 2026, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
UConn head coach Dan Hurley reacts during the second half of the NCAA college basketball tournament national championship game against Michigan at the Final Four, Monday, April 6, 2026, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Michigan's Yaxel Lendeborg watches from the bench during the second half of the NCAA college basketball tournament national championship game against UConn at the Final Four, Monday, April 6, 2026, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Michigan's Trey McKenney, left, and Elliot Cadeau celebrate during the second half of the NCAA college basketball tournament national championship game against UConn at the Final Four, Monday, April 6, 2026, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
UConn guard Silas Demary Jr. celebrates after the second half of an NCAA college basketball tournament semifinal game against Illinois at the Final Four, Saturday, April 4, 2026, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Michigan's Aday Mara (15) reacts during the second half of an NCAA college basketball tournament semifinal game against Arizona at the Final Four, Saturday, April 4, 2026, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
