Outing Cardinal Egan

[Cornus]

Who knows whether Cardinal Edward Egan is sleeping soundly these days. But as head of the New York archdiocese—as the top Roman Catholic prelate in the state—he'd have every reason to be restless after the recent advent of a little-noticed lawsuit.

The suit, now pending in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, was filed on December 13 by Bob Hoatson—a 53-year-old New Jersey priest considered a stalwart ally among survivors of sexual abuse by clergy. Hoatson, the now-suspended chaplain for Catholic Charities in Newark, is suing Egan and nine other Catholic officials and institutions, claiming a pattern of "retaliation and harassment" that began after Hoatson alleged a cover-up of clergy abuse in New York and started helping victims.

But that's not all his lawsuit claims. Halfway through the 44-page complaint, the priest-turned-advocate drops a bomb on the cardinal: He alleges that Egan is "actively homosexual," and that he has "personal knowledge of this." His suit names two other top Catholic clerics in the region as actively gay—Albany bishop Howard Hubbard and Newark archbishop John Myers.

http://villagevoice.com/news/0606,lombardi,72095,6.html

[benburch]

1. Whoa!

I hope he can back that up.

[speedoo]

2. Egan has skeletons in his Bridgeport, CT closet.

He covered up for priests in Connecticut as the Bishop for that area. I have no specifics, but it is one of the open secrets of the CT Catholic church that many were molested by priests there and Egen swept it all under the rug.

[Cassandra]

4. That we knew when he arrived in NY.

The rest of it, well, we will see.

[ruggerson]

3. What does being "actively gay"

have to do with pedophelia?

[Cornus]

5. Absolutely nothing...

...except that in this case it has everything to do with a cover up.

[pnwmom]

6. Actually, it's highly relevant to this situation because the Church has

made it so. The Church's main response to the pedophilia crisis has been to throw up new barriers to the ordination of men who acknowledge being gay. This means that closeted gay bishops (and other members of the hierarchy) are barring openly gay men (even those who only share it with their confessor) from the ministry.

My father, who lived in NJ until his death, had heard rumors about the Newark bishop, so I'm not surprised.

I've been looking for threads that are related to C.o.G.'s issues. Any other "adult kids" in here?