CONNECTICUT
Greenwich Times
By Ivan H. Golden
Staff Writer
December 22, 2004
Cardinal Edward Egan of the Archdiocese of New York will answer questions under oath in a Connecticut civil lawsuit involving allegations of sexual abuse against a former Stamford priest.
A spokesman for the New York Archdiocese issued a brief statement yesterday afternoon, saying that Egan would cooperate with a subpoena for him to give a deposition in the case.
"During the Cardinal's years in the Bridgeport Diocese, there was never any indication of any sort of sexual misbehavior on the part of the priest in question," The statement read. "The Cardinal has indicated that he will cooperate with the court in this matter."
Lawyers for "John Doe," a Bridgeport man who claims in a lawsuit that he was molested in the early 1990s by the Rev. John Castaldo, want to question Egan about why Castaldo was transferred so frequently between parishes in the 1990s.
Egan was head of the Bridgeport Diocese from 1988 through 2000, and lawyers for "John Doe" wrote in a motion last week that Egan, "had access to considerable information indicating John Castaldo was not fit for service as a priest in the Diocese."