Archbishop Eagan has no moral standing

In this morning's edition of "Meet the Press", host Tom Brokaw confronted Democratic vice presidential hopeful Joe Biden with an admonishment delivered to Nancy Pelosi by Archbishop Edward Cardinal Egan of New York in response to Pelosi's assertion that "doctors of the Church have not been able to define when life begins and that over the history of the Church, this is an issue of controversy."

Egan issued a statement that concluded: "Anyone who dares to defend that they may be legitimately killed because another human being 'chooses' to do so or for any other equally ridiculous reason should not be providing leadership in a civilized democracy worthy of the name."

Biden handled the situation brilliantly, stating that his personal belief that life begins at conception stems from his faith (ergo, not science), and he has no right to impose his faith on others. When pressed on the Pelosi/Egan controversy, Biden showed off his Jesuit education, explaining that St. Thomas Aquinas asserted that human life did not begin at conception.

On the matter of the cardinal archbishop of New York, it is well-known that for the last 24 years, that spot is earned through a willingness to display contempt for women -- especially women politicians. In Egan's case, the contempt extends to young people of both sexes. Seems that once a fetus becomes a child, he or she loses all entitlement of protection from Archbishop Egan, who kept vicious predators in place in his parishes as priests, even after complaints of their transgressions against children had come to light. Here's a 2002 transcript from CNN's now-defunct "American Morning with Paula Zahn," in which Jack Cafferty interviews Eric Rich, a reporter for the Hartford Courant, the newspaper that uncovered Egan's cover-up of predator priests when Egan led the Connecticut Archdiocese of Bridgeport:

ERIC RICH: Well, what we were able to conclude is that Egan allowed several priests who were accused of sexual misconduct to remain in ministry for years after accusations surfaced and...

JACK CAFFERTY: So there was a conscious effort to not only allow the priests, who were accused of these activities, to continue, but to in effect keep this information also out of the public view, right?

RICH: That's right. There was that. There was that, yes. We had three priests that we focused on. One was a priest who actually had bitten the penis of a teenager during a nonconsensual sex act. He was one of three that Edward Egan allowed to remain in parish work.

Source:
AMERICAN MORNING WITH PAULA ZAHN
Aired March 18, 2002 - 07:11 ET