Former New York Cardinal Edward Egan, who was at the center of the priest abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport when he was its bishop, has drawn criticism from a national victims’ group and a local law firm that represented victims over an interview he recently gave.

In a recent edition of Connecticut Magazine, Egan said that while bishop here, he did nothing wrong regarding abuse allegations against priests in the diocese and, in fact, never had a case of alleged abuse while he was bishop.

In the interview, Egan also said he believes there is no legal requirement to report abuse cases in Connecticut and expressed regret for the apology he made regarding the priest scandal here.

‘First of all, I should have never said that,’ Egan told the magazine regarding his 2002 statement of regret. ‘I did say if we did anything wrong, I’m sorry, but I don’t think we did anything wrong.’

Egan succeeded Bishop Walter Curtis, who had overseen the diocese from 1961 to 1988.

‘Egan is obviously unrepentant, self-absorbed and painfully dismissive of the abject suffering of tens of thousands of deeply wounded men, women and children who have been sexually violated by priests, nuns, bishops, brothers, […]