Throbert McGee

From the 22 April edition of the <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/today/News_and_Views/City_Beat/a-148459.asp" target="_blank">NY Daily News</a>:

Edward Cardinal Egan's stand-in at St. Patrick's Cathedral pointedly blamed the priest sex abuse scandal yesterday on homosexuality, a "sex-saturated" society and a constant assault on celibacy by liberals.

The interesting thing here is not the content of Monsignor Clark's sermon -- it simply parrots the Vatican's initial response to the U.S. scandal -- but its timing. Right after Egan leaves for the Cardinals' meeting in Rome, a priest whose career has benefitted from Egan's patronage (the Cardinal installed Clark as rector of St. Pat's cathedral) and whose relatively low rank probably makes him immune to the charges of negligence levied against bishops, shifts the blame away from the Church hierarchy. (This would've been a politically unwise ploy for Egan, who has personally been accused of helping to cover up pedophilia scandals; to my knowledge, Egan has thus far kept the finger-pointing inward, though in a disingenuous "mistakes were made" kinda way.)

What I'm wondering is whether Clark is acting on his own, or if Egan encouraged him to make these remarks as some sort of trial balloon.

Rob "And, surprise, 'Catholic League President William Donohue praised Clark'" McGee

[ April 22, 2002: Message edited by: Throbert McGee ]</p>