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PDF versionEgan's Moral Idiocy
by Michael Sean Winters on Feb. 06, 2012
I had thought that by now, 2012, it was impossible to be shocked by an example of episcopal moral idiocy regarding the sexual abuse of minors. For every bishop like Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, who has self-evidently tried to do the right thing by the victims of this horror, there is a grand jury report, actually two, in Philadelphia cataloguing indifference or worse. For every archdiocese like Washington, where three consecutive archbishops – Hickey, McCarrick and Wuerl – have handled accusations of abuse with swiftness and justice, there is a diocese like Kansas City-St. Joseph, which is under criminal indictment for failing to follow civil law, let alone moral law. And for every brave and decisive bishop like Wilton Gregory, who as chairman of the USCCB in 2002 refused to ignore the gravity of the crisis or accept half-measures to face it, there is a bishop like Fabian Bruskewitz who still refuses to even permit an audit of his diocese’s compliance with child protection procedures. As I say, I thought I was beyond shock.
But, then I read the recently published interview in Connecticut Magazine with Cardinal Edward Egan, the archbishop emeritus of New York. And I was shocked. Before reading it, make sure you allow yourself some time to meltdown after.
The cardinal’s words are those of a narcissist in the extreme. He begins, “You know, I never had one of these sex abuse cases, either in Bridgeport or here (New York). Not one. The newspapers pretend as though what happened under Walter Curtis (Bishop of the Bridgeport diocese from 1961 to 1988) happened to me. Walter was a wonderful, wonderful, dear gentleman. He had gotten very old and they were sitting there. And I took care of them one by one.” Funny, I thought only a teenager could get so many “I’s” into so few sentences.
Speaking of funny, here is what the cardinal had to say about media coverage of the sex abuse crisis: “I’m not the slightest but surprised that, of course, the scandal was going to be fun in the news – not fun, but the easiest thing to write about.” Actually, I know of the writers and editors who first broke the stories – they work here at NCR – and I can assure His Eminence that there was no “fun” in it for them. Nor ease. They, like most normal human beings, were horrified by the tales of child rape, cover-up of child rape, placing child rapists repeatedly in situations where they could perpetrate their crimes again, and then trying to keep it all hush-hush lest there be scandal. The decision to publish these stories was courageous but also heart-wrenching, not least because those who researched the stories, wrote the stories and edited the stories were also those who loved the Catholic Church. If all bishops had reacted with the courage of Tom Fox, with the appropriate disgust of Tom Roberts, and with the clear understanding that cover-ups are always a bad idea like Jason Berry, the bishops would not have found themselves in this mess.
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The extraordinary lack of human empathy in this man shines through when the reporter observes that one of the criticisms of Egan’s time as bishop of Bridgeport was his failure to actually meet with the victims. Egan replies, “First of all, I couldn’t apologize for something that happened when I wasn’t there. Furthermore, every one of those cases was in litigation before a court, or threatened to be, and every one was handled correctly.” The defensiveness of the reply is shocking – as if Egan things the worst thing that could happen to a person is not sex abuse but getting a less than stellar wikipedia entry. His defensiveness if only matched by his inability to recognize that a bishop is a pastor, not a lawyer. Other bishops have met with victims – Pope Benedict has met with victims. Others have apologized on behalf of the Church for crimes they did not commit but for which, as the successor of those who did, they take responsibility. Certainly, in Bridgeport, Egan did not decline to use the cathedral because it has been built by a predecessor. He did not foreswear the use of duns raised by his predecessors. Ah, but risking a moment of human empathy by actually meeting with a victim – that is too much, that belongs to his predecessor.
I used the word “victim” above, but of course, that is my word not Egan’s. Indeed, in the entire interview, there are two words that are conspicuous in their absence: victim and children. He talks about what he did. He talks about the perpetrators. He talks about the lawyers. He talks about the media. But, not a word for the victims. No recognition of the children whose lives were maimed by these crimes. If this is not moral idiocy, I do not know what is. How this man reached such a high office is beyond me and only further tarnishes the reputation of Bl. Pope John Paul II who, for all his gifts, was a singularly bad judge of character.
Egan’s interview comes at an especially inauspicious moment. His successor as Archbishop of New York, Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan, has been out front in the USCCB’s fight against the Obama administration’s recent decision to require Catholic institutions to pay health insurance that covers abortifacients, sterilization and contraception. Dolan, rightly, argues that this is an unwarranted attack on the Church. Some Catholics perceive the decision as part of a “war on Catholics,” and while I do not go that far, certainly this is a time when the U.S. hierarchy needs to marshal its moral and intellectual credibility. But, I can think of really no insurance mandate from Obama, and no anti-immigrant legislation from a GOP-dominated legislature in Arizona or Alabama, that can do more harm to Catholics than the continued moral idiocy of Cardinal Egan. He not only undermines us with our critics, he undermines the bishops with loyal Catholics. He makes a mockery of his office. If there were a way to strip him of his red hat, it should be pursued. If there is a way to kick him out of his tony condo, it should be enacted.
Send him away. Send him to a place where he can listen to the victims of sex abuse describe the horrors that were perpetrated on them. Send him to a place where he can listen to the victims’ families. Actually – don’t let him anywhere near a victim because he might cause them further harm. But, send him to a place where he can no longer harm the Church, as he has done in this interview and as he did for years as a bishop. He should, just go. Far away. And repent.
Old cardinals should be seen
Old cardinals should be seen and not heard.
Truth Be Told... Now people
Truth Be Told...
Now people can get a clear insight and understanding of a man( let me tell you, Egan is not Alone), victims and their families had to deal with over the decades he was in power as a Bishop and a Cardinal.
Imagine, if you can, what it must have been like for victims and their families to engage this man while they were at such a low point in their lives, trying to pick up the pieces after being raped as a child by a priest.
I was raped of my innocence and childhood by my pastor at the age of 11, it was like, "having a 10 ton steel Dungeonous door close on life as I knew it". My trust in priests, people, family and friends vanished as I washed my pastors hands of his semen and iniquity in front of my parents and congregation before communion. Yes, I was an altarboy.
What was unimaginably worse, was when I went to the other priests and nuns for help, "they turned their backs on me". It was then, "I realized, there is no God". I felt like I was in a desert. I felt so Alone. When I would sit at the dinner table with my family, they seemed like they were sitting miles away, I would hear them talk and laugh, but it sounded more like distant echoes as I realized how alone I was.
Egan is not alone in his thinking and approach towards children that were raped by priests.
Go interview Bishop Murphy, Cardinal(to be) Dolan and the new Bishop in Philly for starters.
Egan is not Alone.
Egan and many of his fellow
Egan and many of his fellow clerics of the higher order (at least in their minds, higher) are living examples of the truth of these bits of ancient observation:
"The floor of hell is paved with the skulls of bishops." (St. John Chrysostom)
"A bishop never more resembles Jesus Christ than when he has his mouth shut." (Attributed to St. Ignatius of Antioch)
Egan first denies ever even
Egan first denies ever even having a single case, then he states that each case was handled in court. Which is it? Either he has 0 connection with the real world, or he has never learned to tell the truth. Jail time might help, but more likely he will be whisked off to Rome to some grandiose appointment.
This article points to
This article points to something important. The lack of human empathy by bishops is the real scandal in the Catholic Church.
He mocks God.
He mocks God.
Well said. Maybe Egan could
Well said. Maybe Egan could pick up Harris' penance program for him and Harris be rightfully defrocked. Egan made sure that Kavanagh was for far less. Personal animus triumphed there.
The "moral and intellectual
The "moral and intellectual credibility" of the U.S. hierarchy is for all practical purposes non-existent. The way the bishops and the Vatican have dealt with priests and bishops, known sexual predators and rapists of boys and girls, young men and women, women religious, vulnerable adults is appalling, unconscionable and inexcusable.
This is especially true of those who have violated the youngest of children both girls and boys.
Yes, Wilton Gregory was able to get the bishops to vote for the protocols and mandates that were later watered down by the Vatican. Gregory got this done in spite of very aggressive opposition by groups of powerful bishops including Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia.
Make no mistake though, because neither Gregory nor any other bishops would have done anything had they not been caught out when critical mass was reached and everything hit the fan in the Archdiocese of Boston, Massachusetts.
And don't give Gregory more credit than is his due. Remember that none of what was decided on in 2002 held the bishops to the same standards of behavior as the ordinary priests, nor did he press for it.
Neither were there any specifics on disciplining bishops who were complicit in covering up for rogue priests which enabled untold numbers of children to be sexually exploited by individuals already known to have violated children.
Even today most bishops refuse to name known, credibly accused or convicted sexual predators and that list includes Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston.
O'Malley used the excuse that it is up to provincial superiors of the men's communities to name such rogue priests when in fact all priests, no matter their religious communities, serve in any archdiocese at the pleasure of the bishop and come under his authority.
At this point in time the majority of people are looking at anything the bishops say with a very critical eye. That is sad but very necessary.
When the underpinnings of a religious denomination have become so corrupted that it puts the reputation of a brick and mortar institution at the top of its list and its most vulnerable members so far at the bottom that they cannot be found, the rot, the cancer has become systemic and endemic.
It has also metastasized.
It metastasized long ago and it is this rot that has not been acknowledged, confronted or dealt with by the bishops. They are still in denial as to their and/or their predecessors' part in this conspiracy.
This is as true in the U.S. as it is around the world with the exception of a Bishop Thomas Gumbleton here, an Archbishop Martin in Ireland or a Bishop Geoffrey Robinson in Australia.
Until or unless they do that the church's moral credibility will continue in free-fall.
Cardinal Edward Egan makes it clear in his Connecticut Magazine interview that this free-fall continues.
It will continue regardless of how many representatives from 100 bishops' conferences or 30 religious orders meet in Rome or any other place to discuss the clerical abuse scandal.
As far as Egan is concerned, I would be partial to sending Ed to a quite austere monastery in rather remote surroundings which would be quite a contrast to his present accommodations to be sure, but that would be as unjust to the monks as it now is for religious communities who house known predatory priests along with the general population in health care facilities and the like.
Perhaps Cardinal Egan could will his brain to the Alzheimer's research study that so many women religious have over the last few decades because it is really difficult to believe that anyone could be of sound mind and in control of his faculities while giving such an interview.
Sister Maureen Paul Turlish
Advocate for Victims & Legislative Reform
Delaware & Pennsylvania
maturlishmdsnd@yahoo.com
www.Catholics4Change.com
www.AabolishSexAbuse.org
www.Justice4PaKids.com
This is another sick,
This is another sick, over-the-top, reactionary response to realities over which this woman has no control and for which she has no solution. She just seems to like to hear the sound of her own voice. What possible purpose would it serve for Egan to give a different kind of interview? Would it make you feel better?
Let us not forget, shall we,
Let us not forget, shall we, that Egan's successor in Bridgeport, Bp. Lori, went all the way to the Supreme Court in a vain effort to keep sealed Egan's depositions in which he incriminated himself.
He's been an embarassment for quite some time.
You are right on the money.
You are right on the money.
And wouldn't we like to know how many hundreds of thousands of dollars, more like millions, of the people's contributions went to pay for Lori's attempts to keep all that sealed away from the public eye?
And that went on for what, seven years?
What about the Public Relations and the defense lawyers' fees?
Diocesan embezzlements in the Archdiocese of New York or Philadelphia are indeed small potatoes in comparision.
KISS UP CRITICISM ? ... MSW,
KISS UP CRITICISM ? ... MSW, your justifiable criticism of Egan, even if so many years too late, is warranted. He, as you must know, cannot retaliate now. Your gratuitous kissing up to others here should help to further your CU academic career and your NCR position. I would, however, appreciate your real views sometime, without the over-the-top kissing up, even if you have to write anonymously to preserve your place on the "favored apologists" ladder.
Well stated. I suspect Egan
Well stated. I suspect Egan also had much influence in the recent lenient treatment of Harris, the NYC Papal Trip Tour Director. Why he wasn't defrocked for these crimes and Kavanagh was for much less a year ago, speaks volumes about the animus harbored toward the latter over Egan's NYC sojourn.
Egan - "I handled every case
Egan - "I handled every case exactly the right, I never hesitated to have the very finest treatment, the very finest of everything."
Being that he is referring to the perptrators rather than the victims, I am sickened.
Classic situation. When
Classic situation.
When someone voices the word "murder," and it is heard by a listener, it provokes very different responses according to who the listener is: a Holocaust survivor, or the wife of a murdered husband, or a prosecutor, or a jailed murderer, or a criminology academician. Egan's classic hierarchical response to the abuse crisis appears blissfully to assume the public hears (or should) everything as the hierarchical spokesperson thinks it.
Too many of the clergy, hierarchical or not (yet), and thus the Church, have no feeling for how words will be heard by others who are not members of that same hierarchy.
## An excellent point. The
## An excellent point. The lack of feeling you mention suggests the further possibility that, just as we find the attitudes of the bishops mystifying at times, they may find ours equally mystifying. I think there is something of a "dialogue of the deaf" going on. I have no idea what the solution may be :(
Good article but I take
Good article but I take exception with the swiftness with which Cardinals Hickey and McCarrick, Archdiocese of Washington, took action. I worked from 1997 to 2002 to find abuse victims of Rev. Paul Lavin and only when it became too much to deny anymore, did the Cardinal McCarrick remove him in 2002. I was orginally told by Cardinal Hickey's administrator, Bishop William Lori,in 1998 that it was our word against the priest's. They have managed to keep the lid tightly closed on all that's gone on in DC.
Egan undermines all the
Egan undermines all the victims who have suffered horrific sex abuse by clergy and he also undermines children...
How callous can a human being be?
Judy Jones, SNAP Midwest Associate Director, USA, 636-433-2511
"Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests" and all clergy.
(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world's oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims.
SNAP was founded in 1988 and has more than 12,000 members. Despite the word "priest" in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers and increasingly, victims who were assaulted in a wide range of institutional settings like summer camps, athletic programs, Boy Scouts, etc. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)
You use the word "priests"
You use the word "priests" because you're sensationalists. You couldn't care less about victims.
Not Christ like Catholic
Not Christ like
Catholic bishops continue to prove that they aren't Christ like. They protected tens of thousands of known child rapists. They moved them to places where they raped more children. They lied about them. They fight the victims.
Bishop Egan is at least honest in his lack of compassion and concern, making him a rare bishop in being honest about child sex abuse.
The Catholic church continues to prove that they are such a dangerous place for children.
Parents - keep your children away from Catholic priests.
If you have ever seen "The
If you have ever seen "The Silence", a documentary about the child sex abuse cases occurring in a remote area of Alaska, Bishop Kettler was finally forced to sit down with sex abuse victims by order of the court.
I think it should be made mandatory in every sex abuse case currently under review and going forward. Part of any settlement or judgment should be that the presiding Bishop, regardless of whether or not he was in office at the time of the abuses (an increasingly unlikely scenario, I suppose), must sit down in a room full of victims in a round table setting and just keep quiet while they talk.
The disconnect with reality on the part of so many of these men is astounding. Their lack of concern, their open disdain, for the people they vowed to God to serve is obscene.
Unfortunately, I'm not that shocked by this blatant display of inhumanity. I've seen the same attitude spewed forth by lay people "defending" the Church from those who bring up the sex abuse crisis. That same inability to even acknowledge the children's existence, much less their suffering, is a sure sign that Satan is still alive and well and finding his own servants inside the Church.
My heart breaks when I see
My heart breaks when I see how the Catholic Church community in America continues to be torn by the callous insensitivity of so many of its hierarchical leaders, in regard to the clergy pedophile crisis.
Cardinal Edward Egan's statements are truly scandalous. He is a disgrace to the Priesthood of Jesus.
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