WASHINGTON (WJLA) — Theodore McCarrick, the former Archbishop of Washington and once well-respected Cardinal who was removed from the ministry due to several publicized sexual abuse claims that saw him defrocked roughly a decade later, has died.

Cardinal Robert McElroy, the current Archbishop of D.C., confirmed the news in a statement to 7News on Friday. He was 94 years old.

“Today I learned of the death of Theodore McCarrick, former Archbishop of Washington," McElroy's statement read. "At this moment I am especially mindful of those who he harmed during the course of his priestly ministry. Through their enduring pain, may we remain steadfast in our prayers for them and for all victims of sexual abuse.”

McElroy's statement did not go into further details. According to the Associated Press, McCarrick, who'd been diagnosed with dementia, had been living in Missouri, where Vatican News reported he died.

McCarrick became the fifth Archbishop of Washington in 2000 and was declared a Cardinal a year later. He retired from the position in 2006.

He notably participated in the 2005 conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI, presided over the graveside service for U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy at Arlington National Cemetery in 2009, and celebrated Mass with Pope Francis during his 2015 visit to Washington, according to the Associated Press.

He was defrocked by Pope Francis in 2019 after submitting his resignation amid a sexual abuse scandal that extended to his prior archdiocese in New Jersey, and was considered the highest-ranking catholic official to be prosecuted. Cases were dropped against him in 2024 after he was found incompetent of standing trial.

The McCarrick scandal created a crisis of credibility for the church, primarily because there was evidence Vatican and U.S. church leaders knew he slept with seminarians but turned a blind eye as McCarrick rose to the top of the U.S. church as an adept fundraiser who advised three popes.

The Vatican's report on its investigation put the lion’s share of blame on a dead saint: Pope John Paul II, who appointed McCarrick archbishop of Washington, D.C., in 2000, despite having commissioned an inquiry that confirmed he slept with seminarians.

The report found that John Paul believed McCarrick’s last-minute, handwritten denial in which he wrote: “I have made mistakes and may have sometimes lacked in prudence, but in the seventy years of my life I have never had sexual relations with any person, male or female, young or old, cleric or lay."

Over several decades, bishops, cardinals and popes dismissed or downplayed reports of McCarrick’s misconduct with young men as he rose through the ranks to become a cardinal and archbishop, according to the investigation.

The report contained heartbreaking testimony from people who tried to raise the alarm about McCarrick’s inappropriate behavior, including with children, in the mid-1980s.

While the findings provided new details about what the Vatican knew and when, it didn’t directly blame or admit that the church’s internal “old boys club” culture allowed McCarrick’s behavior to continue unchecked.

Cardinals and bishops have long been considered beyond reproach. Claims of homosexual behavior are used to discredit or blackmail prelates that they often are dismissed as rumor. There also has been a widespread but unspoken tolerance of sexually active men in what is supposed to be a celibate priesthood.

Reporting from the Associated Press contributed to this article.

This story is developing. Stay with 7News for the latest.