With the Village Voice’s help, Father Bob Hoatson has come forward outing New York City’s one and only Cardinal Edward Egan in a pending lawsuit. Papers have been filed and this looks like a doozy.

Halfway through the 44-page complaint, the priest-turned-advocate drops a bomb on the cardinal: He alleges that Egan is "actively homosexual," and that he has "personal knowledge of this." His suit names two other top Catholic clerics in the region as actively gay—Albany bishop Howard Hubbard and Newark archbishop John Myers.

What’s worse about the whole thing is the cover-up.

What Hoatson claims is that, as leaders of a church requiring celibacy and condemning homosexuality, actively gay bishops are too afraid of being exposed themselves to turn in pedophile priests. The bishops' closeted homosexuality, as the lawsuit states, "has compromised defendants' ability to supervise and control predators, and has served as a reason for the retaliation."

Someone better inform the Pope that his gay-banning directive isn’t working so well. Who would have thunk it? It seemed like such a great idea at the time!

Outing Cardinal Egan [Village Voice]