US cardinal steps down over sexual abuse scandal

VATICAN CITY: In a move described as unprecedented, Pope Francis has allowed US prelate Theodore McCarrick to step down as a cardinal following allegations of sexual abuse, including one involving an 11-year-old boy. The Vatican announced on Saturday that Francis ordered McCarrick to conduct a "life of prayer and penance" even before a church trial is held.

Breaking with past practice, Francis decided to act swiftly in the case of the emeritus archbishop of Washington, DC, even before the accusations can be investigated by church officials. McCarrick was previously one of the highest, most well known Catholic church officials in the US and was heavily involved the in church's response there to allegations of priestly abuse. The Pope has ordered McCarrick's "suspension from the exercise of any public ministry, together with the obligation to remain in a house, for a life of prayer and penance until the accusations made against him are examined."

Among the boys McCarrick allegedly abused was a child he had baptised shortly after he was ordained a priest. Francis received McCarrick's letter of resignation on Friday, after recent weeks brought a spate of allegations that the 88-year-old prelate had for years sexually abused boys and had sexual misconduct with seminarians. The McCarrick case posed a test of the pontiff 's recently declared resolve to battle what he called a "culture of cover-up" of similar abuses in the Catholic church's hierarchy.