Egan: Church 'will not tolerate' sexual abuse

Egan: "I will continue to do everything in my power to ensure the safety and security of every child in this archdiocese."

NEW YORK (CNN) -- In a letter being given to New York Roman Catholics this Palm Sunday weekend, Cardinal Edward Egan said the church "will not tolerate" the sexual abuse of children by clergymen.

Egan, who as archbishop of New York is the spiritual leader of 2.4 million Catholics, promised that priests who abuse children will be removed from their ministries.

"Sexual abuse of children is an abomination," he wrote. "I will continue to do everything in my power to ensure the safety and security of every child in this archdiocese."

Reiterating an earlier pledge, Egan said the archdiocese will report future abuse allegations to authorities "if there is reasonable cause to suspect abuse and the victim does not oppose reporting."

The archdiocese will also "strongly" encourage victims report "directly and immediately" to civil authorities, the letter said.

The Catholic Church has come under fire in recent months for its handling of pedophile priests.

Florida bishop Anthony O'Connell resigned earlier this month after admitting to an improper physical relationship with a minor boy in the 1970s. And Boston's archdiocese paid a multimillion dollar settlement to victims of a former priest convicted of sexual abuse.

Egan has also been part of the controversy, facing criticism for mishandling sexual abuse allegations while he was bishop of Bridgeport, Connecticut, in the 1990s.

The Hartford Courant reported last Sunday that charges by 26 plaintiffs against six area priests were kept secret and that accused priests continued working throughout the process. Nine other priests had been accused of sexual abuse, the newspaper said.

Egan addressed these criticisms in this weekend's letter, saying the incidents of abuse came before he became Bridgeport's bishop. When he became involved, the victims were adults seeking financial settlements from the church, precluding him from directly communicating with them, Egan said.

More than three-quarters of 1,001 respondents in a Newsweek poll released Saturday that the Catholic Church has been too lenient to priests who sexually abuse children.

Nine out of 10 respondents said the issue is a problem for the church. The poll had a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3 percentage points.

In this weekend's letter, Egan lamented the "small number" of priests who have abused children have unfairly cast aspersions on the entire clergy.

"The overwhelming majority of our good and dedicated priests, who do splendid work day after day, have found their reputations unfairly tarnished by the terrible misdeeds of a few," he said.