New York Cardinal Edward Egan testified five years ago that he encouraged a Roman Catholic priest to continue working even though he knew the priest had admitted to sexual abuse, The Washington Postreported today.
Last month, Cardinal Egan, the spiritual leader of about 2.4 million New York Catholics, issued an apology for mistakes he may have made in failing to address cases involving sexual abuse of children by priests. In March he said any priest who abused a child will be removed from ministry.
But the Postsaid that in videotaped testimony in a 1997 lawsuit brought against the diocese at Bridgeport, Connecticut, which the cardinal headed at the time, he said he would not summarily suspend a priest even in the face of allegations of sexual abuse.
The lawsuit was brought by Mr Frank Martinelli, who had testified that a priest named Laurence Brett had sexually assaulted him three times as a teenager.
Cardinal Egan testified that he knew Father Brett had admitted to sexual abuse when the two held a meeting in 1990, the paper said.
It quoted him as saying the priest "made a good impression on me, he spoke with grace" in a memo he wrote soon after the meeting, which he read in his testimony. "I'll be inclined to write (him) a letter encouraging him to go on with his work."
Cardinal Egan eventually suspended him after learning of many more allegations of sexual abuse, the Post said. The lawsuit ended with a secret financial settlement, it said.
The US Catholic Church has been plagued by a scandal over child sex abuse by priests. Cardinal Egan and seven other leading US cardinals were summoned to the Vatican by Pope John Paul II for a crisis meeting last month.
After the meeting, the pope condemned pedophilia and said there was no place for it in the Church.
AFP