You'll recall that in 2002, the Catholic Church was deeply shaken (and continues to be) with numerous accounts of the sexual abuse of minors by priests. At the time, the Archbishop of New York and former bishop of Bridgeport, Connecticut, Cardinal Edward Egan, apologized for what happened. Now retired, Cardinal Egan recently gave an interview to Connecticut Magazine, rescinding the apology. "First of all, I should never have said that. I did say if we did anything wrong, I’m sorry, but I don’t think we did anything wrong."
Egan, who is 79 and lives in Manhattan, also appeared to be in denial about whether any abuse occurred under his tenure.
CT Magazine: But for a long time nothing had been written—a lot of things had been kept hidden.
EGAN: There really wasn’t much in the way of hidden. I don’t think even now you’re obligated to report them [the abuse cases] in CT.
CT Magazine: I believe you are. What about Fr. Pzolka? (A Stamford priest accused of raping, sodomizing and beating dozens of children. He died in 2009).
EGAN: Of course, that was in the newspaper one thousand times. I arrived in Bridgeport and found out there was a guy that was accused of all this. He never did anything while I was there. I sent him to the Institute of Living. I kept him there and kept him there and he broke his way out and escaped. Could you do anything more for a person you’d never heard of?
I sound very defensive and I don’t want to because I’m very proud of how this thing was handled. I never heard of the man. The same thing with Laurence Brett. In the beginning….I hate to go over this—why are we going over all this again?
Paul Mones, an attorney who represented several abuse victims in New York, told the Times that Egan's apology was an essential part of their recovery. "So if the statements are true, for him to come out and say he was wrong for the apology is more than tragic.”
You can read the entire interview here. While we aren't convinced Hell exists, we'd be willing to make an exception for His Eminence.
