The Vatican said in a statement McCarrick, 88, sent his resignation letter to the pope on Friday night.

Recent weeks have brought a spate of allegations that in the course of his distinguished clerical career, McCarrick sexually abused both boys and adult seminarians. The revelations posed a test to Francis’s recently declared resolve to battle what he called a “culture of cover-up” of such abuse in the Catholic’s church’s hierarchy.

McCarrick has been removed from public ministry since 20 June, pending a full investigation into allegations he fondled a minor more than 40 years ago in New York City.

A man, who was 11 at the time of the first alleged instance of abuse, says a sexually abusive relationship continued for two more decades. McCarrick has denied the initial allegation.

Several men have come forward to allege McCarrick forced them to sleep with him at a beach house in New Jersey when they were adult seminarians studying for the priesthood.

McCarrick has not commented on the allegations of abuse of adult men and another minor.

Besides agreeing to McCarrick’s stepping down as a cardinal, Francis ordered him to conduct “a life of prayer and penance” until accusations against him are examined in a Catholic church trial.

McCarrick rose steadily through the US church, from auxiliary bishop in New York City, to bishop in Metuchen, New Jersey, to archbishop of Newark, New Jersey, and then to Archbishop of Washington DC, where the papal ambassador to the United States is based.

While most scandals involving sexual abuse by members of the clergy have involved rank-and-file priests, some cases involved bishops and there are a few involving cardinals, including a current case in Australia involving one of Pope Francis’ closest advisers, Cardinal George Pell.

In the case of Scottish cardinal Keith O’Brien, accused by former seminarians in 2013 of sexual misconduct, Francis only accepted his resignation after the Vatican’s top abuse prosecutor conducted a full investigation, two years after the first revelations came out.

In its statement on McCarrick, the Vatican said: “Pope Francis accepted his resignation from the cardinalate and has ordered his suspension from the exercise of any public ministry, together with the obligation to remain in a house yet to be indicated to him, for a life of prayer and penance until the accusations made against him are examined in a regular canonical trial.”

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