By Gary Stern
The Journal News
February 24, 2009
http://www.lohud.com/article/2009902240361
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| Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan, left, jokes with Cardinal Edward Egan during a news conference after Dolan is named the next archbishop of New York by Pope Benedict XVI. Dec. 18, 2007: Cardinal Edward M. Egan blesses the coffin during the funeral Mass for Cardinal Avery Dulles at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan |
Who was Cardinal Edward Egan?
It may take years for his legacy to come into focus.
After the high-profile, high-energy tenure of Cardinal John O'Connor, Egan spent his near-decade as archbishop of New York mostly behind the scenes, balancing the books, raising money, slipping away to the opera and revealing little about himself.
He alienated many priests, avoided the secular media when possible and seemed to reject the notion that the Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York is an unofficial chaplain to all New Yorkers.
At yesterday's news conference introducing Archbishop Timothy Dolan, Egan said he had few regrets other than failing to increase vocations to the priesthood. He said some people would have preferred if he had spoken out more on "nonreligious, political" issues, but he chose not to.
"That is a choice that a bishop can make," he said. "I made it clearly, and I'm glad I made that choice."
Egan, now 77, will soon be free to lecture, teach, assist Dolan or do whatever else he desires. As New York's first retired archbishop - all others died in office - he will have no official role.
He came to New York in 2000 with a reputation as a shrewd administrator who would tighten up the church's operations and tackle problems that Cardinal John O'Connor shied away from, such as the need to close parishes and schools and to face the implications of a shrinking, aging priesthood.
He addressed some challenges, closing a $20 million annual budget deficit - not to mention dozens of schools and parishes. But he was unable to increase vocations to the priesthood and did not address the growing burden on many pastors to run their parishes.
Many of Egan's plans were at least temporarily derailed by the sex-abuse crisis of 2002, which turned up an intense media spotlight that made him uncomfortable.
He faced worsening criticism from the priests of New York, many of whom resented his handling of the sex-abuse crisis and insisted that priests were denied due process by their bishop. Growing numbers of priests groused privately that clerical morale was the lowest in memory, which would explain why an anonymous letter criticizing Egan's leadership that appeared in 2006 created a huge buzz.
Perhaps burdened by O'Connor's legacy as a personable and confident media spokesman, Egan kept a low profile for most of his tenure, belying the fact that he was serving in the media capital of the world.
"It wasn't Cardinal Egan's role to come in here and be Cardinal O'Connor," said Rob Astorino of Mount Pleasant, program director of the Catholic Channel on SIRIUS XM Satellite Radio, who has interviewed Egan weekly for two years. "He had to make tough decisions that were left for him, and that sometimes can make you unpopular. Cardinal Egan has very high standards and expectations. Maybe the media didn't get to know him as well as they should have."
But Egan made regular visits to parishes up and down the archdiocese, preaching about the centrality of parish life. He looked far more comfortable posing for pictures at post-Mass coffees with mostly adoring families than standing before TV cameras.
In 2008, Egan made three strong statements in opposition to abortion that galvanized the support of Catholics in the influential blogosphere. He chastised abortion rights supporter Rudy Giuliani for taking Communion during the papal visit, assailed Nancy Pelosi for questioning the church's teachings on abortion and wrote a column stating that modern photography of developing fetuses proves that abortion is as bad as the crimes of Hitler and Stalin.
"It is high time to stop pretending that we do not know what this nation of ours is allowing - and approving - with the killing each year of more than 1,600,000 innocent human beings within their mothers," he wrote in Catholic New York.
The top priorities
Egan arrived with a clear and immediate goal to increase the number of men training for the priesthood. He had earned a reputation for increasing vocations while in Bridgeport, Conn.
"I want to fill this place up," he said at St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers in September 2000.
It was not to be. Since being installed as archbishop, Egan has ordained only 52 diocesan priests, an average of 6.5 per year since 2001. The main or upper seminary at St. Joseph's is training only 16 men for possible ordination as diocesan priests over the next four years.
Egan's other main goal was to get the archdiocese on firm financial footing. He eliminated the budget deficit. He initiated planning for a "realignment" of parishes, which produced a blueprint in 2006 for the closing or scaling down of 31 parishes - many of which were largely inactive - and the eventual building of new churches at five growing parishes.
The archdiocese closed more than two dozen schools during Egan's tenure, often drawing extended protests from parents. But plans to regionalize schools, so that several parishes would have responsibility for a single school, have been slow to come together.
"You can't pay people with holy cards," said the Rev. Thomas Reese of Washington, a leading chronicler of the Catholic bureaucracy in the U.S. "Cardinal Egan had a tough situation when he came in because Cardinal O'Connor had basically run down the finances. He had to cut spending and get out there and raise money, and didn't close as many parishes as people feared."
During his first year, Egan also eliminated several offices of the archdiocese and revamped the staffing at St. Joseph's Seminary, firing faculty members in a public meeting. Unhappiness with how he carried out these moves foreshadowed other complaints to come.
"My standard line on him will be: 'He's no John O'Connor,' " said Christopher Bellitto, a church historian at Kean University in Union, N.J., who was one of those fired from the seminary. "The new archbishop has to restore trust and good will."
Derailed by a crisis
No one could have anticipated the depth and impact of the sex-abuse crisis that rocked the church less than two years after Egan arrived.
Questions arose about several accused priests who had served in Bridgeport when Egan was bishop. On April 21, 2002, he released a letter to parishes apologizing for any past mistakes, saying he had relied on the best available medical and behavioral advice.
"If in hindsight we also discover that mistakes may have been made as regards prompt removal of priests and assistance to victims, I am deeply sorry," he wrote.
Egan pledged to move quickly on any outstanding cases and removed from ministry at least 12 priests in 2002 alone. But most cases lingered for years without any public resolution, drawing the ire of some parishes and later of priests.
One case in particular that rankled many priests concerned Monsignor Charles Kavanagh. He was vicar of development for the archdiocese before being accused in 2002 of having had an inappropriate, romantic relationship with a former seminarian during the 1970s.
Kavanagh was suspended, but his case lingered until he was given a church trial in 2006. As of yet, no decision has been announced.
In 2004, the chair of a national board appointed by the U.S. bishops to monitor their performance on curtailing sex abuse criticized Egan and others for trying to derail an audit process.
"For some reason, Cardinal Egan and others sought to sandbag the process," she said then.
Egan has contended that he fully cooperated with the process.
Some were also disturbed by Egan's handling in 2002 of allegations that former Auxiliary Bishop James McCarthy had had sexual relations with women, which McCarthy admitted. Egan suspended McCarthy, banning him from acting as a priest, before saying he turned the case over to the Vatican's U.S. representative.
Since 2003, McCarthy has been listed as a retired bishop.
Criticism intensifies
The priests of New York have had a conflicted relationship with Egan.
Discontent over Egan's handling of sex-abuse cases spurred 74 priests to sign a petition in 2003 about their concerns.
In the fall of 2006, a mysterious, anonymous letter that summarized criticisms of Egan's leadership caused a stir among priests and the media. The archdiocese's Priests Council strongly criticized the letter after a closed door meeting with Egan.
Then in March 2008, many priests privately railed against Egan's transfer of more than 40 priests. Some of the transfers were unexpected, they said, and could not be explained. The Priests Council again defended him, issuing a statement of support "as he faces unfair and anonymous attacks in the media."
Egan, in his many visits to parishes, insisted that parish life was central to the church of New York, downplaying his own role.
At the end of his first year, he told parishioners at St. John the Baptist Church in Yonkers that he had been busy with administrative things but would soon fight for Catholic priorities like private-school vouchers.
"At the end of all this, Paul Revere is coming," he said.
Egan did speak out now and then, particularly on lobbying trips to Albany, about private school relief and other issues. But he may be more remembered for his three statements about abortion during the waning months of his tenure.
Time will tell whether Egan is remembered for making tough choices, failing to provide strong leadership or both.
Reach Gary Stern at gstern@lohud.com or 914-694-3513.
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