Theodore McCarrick, a former cardinal of the Catholic Church who was defrocked by Pope Francis, has been ruled mentally unfit to stand trial by a Massachusetts judge in a sexual abuse case.

McCarrick, 93, was facing charges stemming from a decades-old incident at a 1974 wedding reception where he allegedly sexually assaulted a teenage boy. On Wednesday, Dedham District Court Judge Paul McCallum ruled that the disgraced prelate was unfit to stand trial and dismissed the charges.

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The ruling comes months after McCarrick's defense team filed a motion arguing he could not stand trial after an expert determined that he was incapable of participating in his defense. The expert's findings were later confirmed by Kerry Nelligan, a forensic psychologist hired by the prosecution.

Nelligan told the court Wednesday that McCarrick suffers from dementia and displays "deficits of his memory and ability to retain information.

"These deficits are not going to get better," Nelligan said, according to ABC News. "There is no cure. There is no medication that can improve the symptoms."

McCarrick was once among the most senior leaders of the Catholic Church in the United States. He served as archbishop of Newark for 14 years and as the archbishop of Washington, D.C., from 2001 to 2006. In 2001 he was elevated to the College of Cardinals and participated in the papal conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI in 2005.

In 2018, reports surfaced that McCarrick had a history of sexual misconduct towards seminarians. The allegations prompted Pope Francis to strip McCarrick of his membership in the College of Cardinals. In 2019, the Vatican announced that McCarrick had been dismissed from the clerical state, a process known as laicization.

The charges in Massachusetts were brought against McCarrick in 2021 and were the first criminal charges the former prelate had faced over sexual abuse allegations. He pleaded not guilty to the charges.

In a statement Wednesday, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said that while the charges brought against McCarrick had to be dismissed, "the verdict in this case has already been rendered, and the disgraced prelate and those who enabled him will eventually confront a judge who does not hear defense motions.

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"We trust that McCarrick's lengthy career as a cardinal in the Catholic Church will be remembered by those who scrutinize child sex abuse victims for failing to report crimes promptly," the group said. "Moreover, as someone who has deftly utilized legal technicalities to evade justice."

McCarrick still faces a misdemeanor fourth-degree sexual assault charge in Wisconsin over an alleged incident of abuse that occurred in 1977.