James Francis McCarthy (born July 9, 1942) is an American

prelate A prelate () is a high-ranking member of the Minister (Christianity), Christian clergy who is an Ordinary (church officer), ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin , the past participle of , which me ...

of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

who served as an

auxiliary bishop An auxiliary bishop is a bishop assigned to assist the diocesan bishop in meeting the pastoral and administrative needs of the diocese. Auxiliary bishops can also be titular bishops of sees that no longer exist as territorial jurisdictions. ...

of the

Archdiocese of New York The Archdiocese of New York () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church located in the New York (state), State of New York. It encompasses the boroughs of Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island in New York ...

in New York City from 1999 to 2002. McCarthy was forced to resign his post in 2002 after he admitted having sexual affairs with adult women.

Biography

Early life

Born on July 9, 1942, in

Mount Kisco, New York Mount Kisco is a Administrative divisions of New York#Village, village and Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Westchester County, New York, United States. The town of Mount Kisco is coterminous municipality, coterminous with the ...

, James McCarthy attended

Archbishop Stepinac High School Archbishop Stepinac High School is an American Single-sex education, all-boys' Catholic Church, Roman Catholic high school in White Plains, New York. It was operated by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York until the 2009–2010 school yea ...

in White Plains, New York. McCarthy then attended Cathedral College in Queens, New York, and St. Joseph Seminary in Yonkers, New York.

Priesthood

McCarthy was ordained to the priesthood by Cardinal

Terence Cooke Terence James Cooke (March 1, 1921 – October 6, 1983) was an American Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of New York from 1968 until his death, quietly battling leukemia throughout his tenure. He was named a cardinal in 1969. Cooke pre ...

at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan on June 1, 1968, for the Archdiocese of New York. After his 1968 ordination, the archdiocese assigned McCarthy as an assistant pastor at St. Denis Parish in

Hopewell Junction, New York Hopewell Junction is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in Dutchess County, New York, United States. The population was 1330 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Kiryas Joel– Poughkeepsie– Newburgh, NY Metropolitan Stati ...

. He left St. Denis in 1976 to serve as pastor at St. Benedict's Parish in the Bronx. In 1984, Cardinal John O'Connor named McCarthy as his priest-secretary. For the next few years, McCarthy accompanied O'Connor on official visits in the United States and other countries. In 1993, the two prelates visited Poland and Albania. McCarthy later wrote about visiting the Monastery of Jasna Gora in Czestochowa, Poland, home of the

Black Madonna The term ''Black Madonna'' or ''Black Virgin'' tends to refer to statues or paintings in Western Christendom of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Infant Jesus, where both figures are depicted with dark skin. The Jungian scholar, San Begg publ ...

. They also visited the German concentration camps of

Auschwitz Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschw ...

and

Birkenau Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) d ...

Auxiliary Bishop of New York

On May 22, 1999,

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

appointed McCarthy as

titular bishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...

of Verona and

of New York. He was consecrated on June 29, 1999, by O'Connor at St. Patrick's Cathedral. As auxiliary bishop, McCarthy served as pastor of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in

Shrub Oak, New York Shrub Oak is an unincorporated hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) located in the town of Yorktown in Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 2,011 at the 2010 census. Geography Shrub Oak is located at (41.330178, ...

while overseeing northern Westchester, Putnam and Rockland Counties. In June 2002, Cardinal Edward Egan received a letter from a woman who claimed to have had a

consensual Consent occurs when one person voluntarily agrees to the proposal or desires of another. It is a term of common speech, with specific definitions used in such fields as the law, medicine, research, and sexual consent. Consent as understood in ...

affair as an adult with McCarthy. She said the relationship happened 20 years earlier when he was assigned to St. Benedict's Parish. When confronted with the woman's letter, McCarthy said the allegation was true. He also confessed to having consensual sexual contact with other adult women. At that point, Egan removed him from all of his ministerial duties. It was later confirmed that McCarthy had revealed the affairs 15 years earlier during

confession A confession is a statement – made by a person or by a group of people – acknowledging some personal fact that the person (or the group) would ostensibly prefer to keep hidden. The term presumes that the speaker is providing information that ...

. Many of his former parishioners and friends in the clergy felt that McCarthy had been treated unfairly by the church. Some people theorized that McCarthy was the victim of a power struggle between Egan and of O'Connor supporters.

Resignation and legacy

On June 15, 2002, John Paul II accepted McCarthy's letter of resignation as auxiliary bishop of New York.

References

External links

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York Official Site
1942 births Living people People from Mount Kisco, New York 20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in the United States People of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York 21st-century Roman Catholic bishops in the United States {{US-RC-bishop-stub