"He knows how to deal with these people..." Former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and U.S. intelligence agencies

Abstract

The article examines the specifics of the interaction of the US special services with the highest Catholic clergy of America on the example of the case of former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who was dismissed and then banned from the priesthood for moral offenses. The high-profile case of McCarrick, who served as Archbishop of Washington, caused a serious public outcry and prompted the Vatican to conduct a thorough internal investigation of the charges against the prelate. The result of this investigation was the fundamental "Report On The Holy See’s Institutional Knowledge And Decision-Making Related to Former Cardinal Theodore Edgar McCarrick (1930 To 2017)". Report, which is the main source when working on the article, was intended mainly to appease public discontent, however, as the author shows, it can be successfully used to study the nature of interaction between American intelligence agencies and the Catholic community of the United States. The novelty of the work carried out consists in several points. First, the topic of interaction between the US special services and the American religious community in modern times, which is rare for Russian historiography, is considered. For the first time, the Report is introduced to the Russian-speaking specialists. It has been established that former Cardinal McCarrick received instructions from the FBI and consulted with the Vatican mission in the United States regarding the fulfillment of the tasks received. McCarrick's case is inscribed in the context of high-profile situations for the United States, when the methods of action of the special services caused public protest. The author comes to the conclusion that we may be talking about a well-known routine in the implementation of contacts between Catholic prelates and special services.