February 17, 2006

Acts of courage

NEW YORK
Bay Windows

Susan Ryan-Vollmar
srvollmar@baywindows.com

Speaking of courage, a New York priest has sued Cardinal Edward Egan and nine other Catholic officials alleging that they retaliated against him after he started speaking out about clergy sexual abuse and the Church’s failure to deal with it. But that’s not all. The Rev. Bob Hoatson also alleges in his suit that Egan, Albany Bishop Howard Hubbard and Newark Archbishop John Myers are “actively homosexual” and have failed to deal with pedophile priests out of fear that their sexuality would be exposed.

The allegations are laid out in a report in the Village Voice by Kristen Lombardi. Lombardi is the former Boston Phoenix reporter who broke the story about Cardinal Bernard Law’s knowledge of pedophile priest John Geoghan’s abuse of children and Law’s strategy for dealing with Geoghan’s criminal activities: Transfer him to new parishes when complaints started coming in about Geoghan’s behavior.

Posted by kshaw at February 17, 2006 08:53 AM