NEW YORK (AP) -- As Cardinal Edward Egan headed to the Vatican for a summit on sexual abuse, his stand-in at St. Patrick's Cathedral gave a homily blaming the scandal on homosexuality and an ``immoral country.''
Monsignor Eugene Clark, an outspoken clergyman of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, called homosexuality a ``disorder'' and said gay men should not be allowed to become priests, the Daily News reported in Monday's editions.
``The tendency to homosexuality is a disorder, not a sin,'' Clark said in his 15-minute sermon Sunday. ``But the practice of homosexuality is truly sinful.''
Clark also said the United States is ``probably the most immoral country certainly in the Western Hemisphere'' and blamed American society for being ``very protective'' of homosexuality.
Egan named Clark rector of St. Patrick's after taking over for Cardinal John O'Connor more than one year ago.
Before leaving for Rome, Egan asked parishioners at a Bronx church to pray for him and other American cardinals as they prepared to leave for Rome to address the sex abuse scandal with the pope.
``Please keep us in your prayers these next four or five days,'' Egan told the congregation at St. Anthony of Padua Church in the Morrisania section.
He asked the congregation of about 150 people to ``keep in your prayers the meeting we're going to have in Rome. We're facing a very tragic situation. Our Holy Father wishes to speak with us about this and we're anxious to hear what he has to say.''
Egan, the former bishop of Bridgeport, Conn., whose handling of sexual abuse cases there has come under heavy criticism, did not directly address the criticism against him.
Also Sunday, in a letter from Bishop Thomas Daily, parishioners in the Diocese of Brooklyn were told that the names of 21 priests, stretching back some 20 years, were given to the district attorney's office of Brooklyn and Queens counties.