December 21, 2004

Court wants Egan subpoena enforced

CONNECTICUT
Greenwich Time

By Ivan H. Golden
Staff Writer

December 21, 2004

A Connecticut court has asked New York authorities to enforce a subpoena against Cardinal Edward Egan, of the Archdiocese of New York, ordering him to answer questions under oath in a sexual abuse case involving a former Stamford priest.

Judge Chase Rogers, of state Superior Court in Stamford, issued the request last week in response to a motion from a Stamford lawyer whose client, identified in court papers as "John Doe," claims he was molested in the early 1990s by the Rev. John J. Castaldo while Castaldo was a priest at St. Teresa Church in Trumbull. Rogers also asked New York authorities to enforce a subpoena against the Rev. Kevin Mackin, of Loudenville, N.Y.

The motion from the plaintiff's lawyer states that Egan and Mackin, "are important witnesses whose testimony is critical evidence in this case." Egan was head of the Diocese of Bridgeport in 1992, the year Castaldo was transferred from St. Teresa Church in Trumbull to St. Mark's Parish in Stratford. Mackin was president-rector of the Christ the King Seminary in East Aurora, N.Y., in 1985, the year Castaldo was dismissed from the seminary.

According to the motion, "Cardinal Egan had access to considerable information indicating John Castaldo was not fit for service as a priest in the Diocese" and that he, "had and ignored other information indicating Castaldo was not fit to serve as a priest."

Posted by kshaw at December 21, 2004 07:48 AM