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In recent weeks, as buzz of a coming handover at the helm of the archdiocese of New York picked up steam in the city press and church circles far beyond the "capital of the world," Cardinal Edward Egan's inner circle has held to the line that any talk of the Boss' imminent retirement was "way, way overblown." Thirteen months past his 75th birthday, with Egan reported as saying that his occupancy of 452 Madison could continue for "some time," possibly as long as two more years, the cardinal backed up the talking point early last week by rolling out...

A papal visit, with its weeks of build-up and intense media coverage, often seems to end with an afterglow — but very little news — once the pope and his party fly back to the Eternal City. Not so with Pope Benedict’s recent U.S. visit where, more than a week after it ended, the volatile issue of public figures, the abortion & Communion issue is making headlines.While journalists reported that prominent Catholic politicians who support abortion rights stepped up to receive the Eucharist during Masses in Washington and New York (here’s our story and blog post), the development was...

Unquestionably, canon 915 is the most discussed canon in the Codex Iuris Canonici, or Code of Canon Law, in recent Church history.  Many in the media have reported on the January 8, 2004 canonical actions of Archbishop Raymond Burke, then bishop of the La Crosse, Wisconsin diocese.  Archbishop Burke’s discipline on legislators has rocked the Catholic Church worldwide.  Because of misinformation, speculation and outright resentment, confusion reigns regarding the Archbishop's promulgation of his 'canonical notification' based on canon 915, the official communication of what the Church's discipline is. I would like to make some important clarifications, with appropriate documentation, in...

Edward Cardinal Egan of New York issued a formal statement concerning the reception of the Eucharist by the former Mayor of New York and former Republican candidate for President, Rudolph Giuliani.

April 28, 2008 -- NEW YORK - New York Cardinal Edward Egan says Rudy Giuliani should not have received Holy Communion during the pope's visit because he supports abortion rights. Egan says he had "an understanding" with the former presidential candidate and New York mayor that he is not to receive the Eucharist. The Catholic Church teaches "that abortion is a grave offense against the will of God." The cardinal says Giuliani broke that understanding when he received the Eucharist during Pope Benedict XVI's visit. Egan says he will be seeking a meeting with Giuliani "to insist that he abide...

(Easter Night; 11.35pm) Well, it would appear that the Pope's vestments have made an early landing in Gotham.... Already circulating among the New York clergy are shots of Cardinal Edward Egan wearing an old Roman-style chasuble at tonight's Easter Vigil in St Patrick's Cathedral. For the record, however, the set didn't come from Rome, but France. As the Big Apple church marks its bicentennial year, the Fra Angelico-inspired hand-embroidered "fiddle-back" depicting the Pietá was commissioned for the centennial of the archdiocese's founding by then-Archbishop John Farley, who became New York's second cardinal in 1911. The set also includes four...

A parishioner from a small town north of New York City has started an online petition with a simple, respectful request to his Cardinal-Archbishop: “Please offer this year's Christmas Midnight Mass in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite.” "Pope Benedict's release of the motu proprio, Summorum Pontificum, was possibly the most significant event of his pontificate, yet many millions of Catholics have no idea this paradigm-shattering document even exists," stated Patrick McGrath, who has lived most of his life in and near Stony Point, New York. "Then I thought that my own Archbishop, Edward Cardinal Egan, has it within...

July 19, 2007 -- WASHINGTON - Congress is trying to "excommunicate" Edward Cardinal Egan by refusing to pass a routine resolution honoring the New York Archdiocese simply because it mentions the archbishop's name, The Post has learned. In a stunning personal slap at the leader of 2.5 million Catholics in New York, a powerful Democrat-controlled House committee has demanded that Egan's name be stricken from the commemoration of the archdiocese's 200th anniversary. Rep. Vito Fossella (R-S.I.), the resolution's chief sponsor, said it appears the committee wants the cardinal's name deleted because of the Catholic Church's sexual-abuse scandal. The bipartisan resolution,...

February 27, 2007 -- Edward Cardinal Egan pulled a fast one on a lower Manhattan parish pastor yesterday, summoning the priest to meet with him - then dispatching security guards to permanently lock the cleric's church doors. The priest returned to Our Lady of Vilnius to find himself locked out - a brusque Egan move that left parishioners stunned and saddened. The cardinal's move also occurred right before a scheduled meeting with Lithuania's consul general, who was set to make a plea to save the church, parishioners and the Archdiocese of New York said. "Cardinal Egan again shows his true...

Edward Cardinal Egan and Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio yesterday declared a holy war against the city's distribution of 26 million free, subway-themed condoms, calling it an immoral "anything goes" policy that degrades society. In a rare joint statement attacking Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration, the Catholic leaders said they were particularly disturbed that the "NYC" branded condoms were handed out by city workers to young teens on the streets Wednesday. "The decision of the City of New York to distribute [26] million free condoms to the public — and minors as well, according to news reports — is tragic and misguided,"...

Mutiny in the Big Apple *EXCLUSIVE -- MUST CREDIT WHISPERS* In 1983, the new bishop of Scranton was consulted on the appointment of a new archbishop of New York. John O'Connor was familiar with the See given his long service as a Navy chaplain, culminating with his four years as auxiliary bishop to the Military Vicar, Cardinal Terence Cooke. O'Connor later made it known that, while the new archbishop would inevitably face some difficulties, he opined that none would be due to the New York presbyterate, who served well, loved the church and were loyal to their archbishop. Less than...

As the Roman Catholic Church struggles to repair itself and its image in the wake of the sex abuse scandals, one of the more confounding questions church leaders face is what to do with priests accused of abuse. Some priests whose crimes fell within statutes of limitation are in jail. Some have been defrocked. But others — because they are elderly, because of the nature of their offenses, or because they have had some success fighting the charges — cannot be defrocked under canon law. These priests occupy a sort of shadow world, stripped of most duties but still financially...

I've just come back from a week in Australia, and have been pouring over my regular sources of 'What's going on in the world', and came across the article entitled: Mayor, Officials Swept Out of Office for Their Support of Illegal Aliens, by Jim Kouri, CPP. I thought it very interesting, but it was not until I read a joke that arrived in an email, that I saw another 'moral of the story'. The Joke: The Lone Ranger and Tonto went camping in the desert. After they got their tent all set up, both men fell sound asleep. Some hours...

Just something I thought was pretty funny so I put it up on YouTube Bernard McGuirk as Cardinal Egan

New York Cardinal Edward Egan is not a very popular man. He inherited sexual-abuse fiascos in both Bridgeport and New York, and, being from New England, was incorrectly associated with Cardinal Law. He was sent to Bridgeport (in the metropolitan of Hartford) shortly after being ordained an auxiliary bishop of New York. There Bishop, Walter William Curtis had shuffled accused priests around the diocese, resulting in the diocese facing tens of millions of dollars of lawsuits. The lawsuits continued throughout Egan's term. When Egan was appointed to head the archdiocese of New York, with these cases still unsettled, many New...

Some U. S. dioceses, such as New York, Boston, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., have granted priestly faculties to Patriotic Association priests, allowing them to openly offer Holy Mass and administer other Sacraments, including hearing confessions in Roman Catholic parishes. May Catholics who are the recipients of these sacraments from a Patriotic Association priest are in the dark, because they do not know the identity of these Patriotic Association priests. According to item 5 of the Holy See’s 1988 China directives, “The Patriotic bishops and priests are not to be invited or even allowed to celebrate religious functions in public,...

Edward Cardinal Egan will not have to testify in the trial of a sexual-abuse lawsuit against his former Connecticut diocese.

A Connecticut judge is asking New York authorities to enforce a subpoena for Edward Cardinal Egan to testify in a sexual-abuse case. Judge Chase Rogers issued the request last week in response to a motion from a lawyer whose client claims he was molested in the early 1990s by a priest at St. Teresa Church in Trumbull.

The head of a national lay group charged with investigating the sexual abuse crisis in the Roman Catholic Church said Saturday that several prelates, including Cardinal Edward Egan of New York, are attempting to short-circuit reforms passed two years ago. Illinois Appellate Judge Anne Burke, interim chairwoman of the National Lay Review Board, expressed particular concern about the fate of an annual audit that tracks whether church leaders are fulfilling promises to protect children. "We have to do the audits or we'll be back to business as usual," Burke told about 500 members of Voice of the Faithful, a national...

The great G. K. Chesterton, ever the soul of childlike wonder, once said that of all the things he wondered at, he wondered most at those who wonder not at all. We can only guess what he would have made of the whole wonder-free Vatican II experiment, with its arriviste contempt toward not only traditional Catholicism but also great sacred music, glorious liturgy, majestic sculpture and architecture, and graceful translations of holy writ. Indeed, to find anything to match Vatican II’s sheer Philistine hostility to the beauty of the Lord’s house and the place where His glory dwelleth, Chesterton would...