John Bellocchio, 37, who claims former Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick abused him when he was a teenager, announced at a Dec. 9 news conference the he is suing the Vatican and demanding “sweeping child protection changes.”
He filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of New York in 1958, McCarrick was named an auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese in 1977.
A week earlier, Bellocchio, who is represented by Minnesota attorney Jeff Anderson, filed a lawsuit in New Jersey against McCarrick, who was archbishop of Newark, New Jersey, from 1986 to 2000. The suit also names the Archdiocese of Newark as a defendant.