Vatican City, June 08: Pope John Paul II has named five cardinals to a Vatican appeals tribunal, including New York's Edward Egan, who has been criticized for past handling of sexual abuse cases. The L'osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, reported the appointments yesterday without comment.

The Apostolic Signatura is the supreme tribunal of the church. It handles appeals from the Roman Rota, the tribunal that hears requests for annulment of marriages. The signatura also serves as the appeals court for Vatican City's civil and criminal tribunals.

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Egan, an expert in canon law, had served as a judge in the Rota during his long career in Rome. Before being named by the pope to the New York archdiocese, Egan was bishop in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He has been criticized for his handling of cases of sexual abuse involving priests during his Bridgeport tenure.

The other four cardinals named by the pope to the appeals tribunal are Jozef Glemp, from the Pope's homeland in Poland two Italians, Agostino Cacciavillan and Sergio Sebastiani and Walter Kasper, a German.
Bureau Report