|
Cardinal Edward Egan: A good steward who got a bad rap (commentary)
By Tom Wrobleski
It was almost as if the former archbishop of New York, who died the other day at the age of 82, had one strike against him before he even set about his work for the archdiocese. Cardinal Egan arrived as the head of the New York Archdiocese in 2000, following the death of Cardinal John O'Connor. Those were some pretty big shoes to fill, and in the highest-profile archdiocese in the country, no less. Cardinal O'Connor was one of the most dynamic prelates the city has ever seen, a savvy political player who understood how to use the media to get his message across. He spoke out against U.S. military intervention in Central America and elsewhere, and battled with the gay community as the AIDS crisis developed in the 1980s. He was in the papers almost as much as another icon of the time, Mayor Ed Koch. That wasn't Cardinal Egan's game. A scholar of church law who'd served at the Vatican, Cardinal Egan was more cerebral, more of an intellectual. He could be frosty and emotionally distant, some said. He didn't hang out with politicians. He suffered by comparison with Cardinal O'Connor. And Cardinal Egan suffered by comparison with his own successor, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who has a more obvious touch of the hands-on parish priest about him. In that way, Cardinal Egan has much in common with a pontiff who served during part of his tenure, Pope Benedict XVI, who succeeded the larger-than-life Pope John Paul II and who handed the keys to the kingdom to the gentler, more pastoral Pope Francis. And, like Benedict, Cardinal Egan took hits for how he handled accusations of sexual abuse by priests, particularly during his tenure as archbishop of Bridgeport, Conn. That controversy will rightly be a part of Cardinal Dolan's legacy. When Cardinal Egan arrived in New York, demographic and economic shifts were hollowing out parts of the archdiocese. Parishes and schools were dying on the vine as the neighborhoods around them emptied out or changed. Attendance at some churches and schools plummeted. It was Cardinal Egan's job to fix it, and he oversaw a wrenching series of parish and school closures and consolidations. He was like the corporate CEO who's brought in to do the firings and restructure the firm. God's hatchet man, with that stern demeanor and intellectual aloofness. But, as Cardinal Dolan rightly pointed out, Cardinal Egan, also a robust fundraiser, left the archdiocese stronger than he found it. "It's on sturdier foundations," Cardinal Dolan said. "I'm sure glad he was my predecessor." But Cardinal Egan was so much more than a money man. He never stood taller than he did in the aftermath of 9/11. During a visit to St. John Villa Academy two months after the attacks, Cardinal Egan put it exactly right when he said that the thousands who had lost their lives at the World Trade Center had died at the hands of "vicious criminals." "How will we deal with this?" he said. "We will not be afraid. We will be strong and sure, and the reason will be, we trust in our God." Two years later, Cardinal Egan was here again, this time to say Mass for some of the victims of the 2003 Staten Island Ferry crash, telling the families to "embrace the marvelous faith of Staten Island." He said, "You are not in this alone." His wasn't a perfect tenure, but as Cardinal Egan himself said, he had a job to do in New York, and he did it. We're sure glad he was here for us. Contact: wrobleski@siadvance.com
|
.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.