Update on "Monsignor Meth" - The Kinky Priest Who Sold Meth

St. Augustine Cathedral, Bridgeport, Conn. (Lukascb via Wikipedia)

I apologize for yet another Catholic Church related post, but the unbelievable but true stories just keep hitting the blogosphere and make it difficult to ignore the growing soap opera/cess pool aspects of the Church.  And yes, I've already looked at the unbelievable story of Monsignor Kevin Wallin, the meth selling, cross dressing orgy loving priest assigned to St. Augustine Cathedral in Bridgeport, Connecticut who has been indicted on federal drug charges.  But, interestingly, The Daily Beast has a story that shows that Wallin is not just any rank and file priest.  No, he was the closest confidant to Cardinal Edward Egan (recently retired archbishop of New York) when he was bishop in Bridgeport.  For those not in the know, Egan was a former lieutenant of Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston and served as a Mafia like "soldier" who went out and threatened victims of sexual abuse and their families in the Boston Archdiocese to remain silent.  Egan sadly typifies the type of moral monster who gets promoted in the Church hierarchy.  But back to Monsignor Meth.  Here are highlights from The Daily Beast piece:

Sex toys, ruby red slippers, drug paraphernalia, and a Roman collar!

Those all were to be elements of The Land of Oz & Dorothy’s Place, a combination adult novelty shop that Monsignor Kevin Wallin apparently planned to take over and move to a new location after he was suspended from his Bridgeport, Conn., parish amid reports of him cross-dressing and having sex in the rectory.

Add methamphetamine to the list, according to the government, which alleges that the 61-year-old cleric now dubbed “Monsignor Meth” used the store to launder proceeds from a transcontinental drug enterprise.

Diocesan officials had been shocked enough by the reports of cross-dressing and of visitors of similar inclination as well the discovery of what were described as “unusual sex toys” in Wallin’s residence. Now there were allegations that Wallin owned a store that sold such toys along with XXX videos. Even worse, he was charged not just with using drugs, but also with selling them, and on such a scale he could spend the rest of his life in prison.

And this was not just any priest in any archdiocese. Wallin had been the longtime personal assistant and closest confidant to Edward Egan when he was bishop in Bridgeport, the two of them often going to see Broadway shows in New York. Egan had continued the archdiocese’s tradition of shuffling priests accused of sex crimes against children and of discounting the pain of the victimized. He reviewed the file of one priest named Laurence Brett, whose many young victims included 10-year-old who had been violated by being shown a crucifix and told that if he did certain exercises he could have abs like Christ.