Vatican City • Pope Francis has accepted U.S. prelate Theodore McCarrick’s offer to resign from the College of Cardinals in the wake of allegations of sexual abuse, including one involving an 11-year-old boy, and ordered him to conduct a “life of prayer and penance” in a home to be designated by the pontiff until a church trial is held, the Vatican said Saturday.
Francis acted swiftly after receiving McCarrick’s letter of resignation Friday evening, after recent weeks have brought a spate of allegations that the 88-year-old prelate in the course of his clerical career had sexually abused both boys and adult seminarians.