Egan's Critical Day: Catholics Are Divided As Cardinal Braces for Meeting with Top Aides, by Mike Jaccarino, Jimmy Vielkind and Adam Lisberg, New York Daily News, October 16, 2006

Egan's Critical Day
Catholics Are Divided As Cardinal Braces for Meeting with Top Aides

By Mike Jaccarino, Jimmy Vielkind and Adam Lisberg
New York Daily News
October 16, 2006

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/462239p-388770c.html

Prayers for unity echoed through St. Patrick's Cathedral yesterday as embattled Edward Cardinal Egan prepared for today's meeting with aides - and one top monsignor denounced a challenge to Egan's leadership.

But in a nod to angry Catholic clergy throughout the Archdiocese of New York, Egan delayed the meeting time with his Priest Council so it would not conflict with the funeral of a popular priest.

Msgr. Robert Ritchie told the Daily News yesterday that an anonymous letter calling for a no-confidence vote on Egan "was ill-advised, and it shows a lack of respect, I think, for the Archbishop of New York.

Msgr. Howard Calkins of Sacred Heart Church in Mount Vernon, greeting child after Mass, says most priests in archdiocese agree with letter criticizing Cardinal Egan.

"It was poorly timed, and I disagree," added Ritchie, the rector of St. Patrick's, before celebrating Mass in the famed Manhattan cathedral.

The Mass featured a prayer that included a call for clergy to "be witness to the unity of God's work." The archdiocese later said the prayer choice was not intended to send any message.

Ritchie's endorsement comes after days after The News revealed the anonymous letter, which brought many priests' private grumblings about a lack of communication with Egan into public view.

Egan is scheduled to meet at 1p.m. today with 30 to 40 members of his Priest Council - which includes his five auxiliary bishops and other close aides - to talk about his leadership.

He moved the time back two hours to accommodate the 10 a.m. funeral for Msgr. Charles Kelly of Chappaqua, Westchester County.

Although Egan has rebuilt the church's finances in the past six years, he has never asserted the same strong public role as did predecessors like John Cardinal O'Connor, and many priests feel he is not on their side.

Msgr. Howard Calkins of Sacred Heart Church in Mount Vernon told The News a majority of priests agree with the letter's sentiment - which he traced to clerics feeling abandoned by Egan when the sex abuse scandal exploded in 2002.

"The 2002 sexual abuse scandal wounded us and sent us into a tailspin," Calkins said.

Calkins said he believes some of the accused priests were innocent and some were not, but few believed they got a fair hearing from Egan.

"They said he was distant," Calkins said. "He did not ask what happened, and they didn't have a chance to say what happened."

Archdiocesan spokesman Joseph Zwilling declined to comment on Calkins' remarks yesterday, saying, "If members of the Priest Council want to bring something up with the cardinal, they may do so."

Catholics interviewed at churches throughout the archdiocese yesterday said Egan cuts a different figure in the city than O'Connor did, but not everyone thought it was a problem.

But at Immaculate Conception Church on E. 14th St., Liza Pagidas, 41, said it was time for a change.

"He should be with the people," she said. "That's part of his ministerial job."