Doing the priest shuffle
-
- May
- 14
For those who follow these things, it’s no secret that morale among the Catholic priests of New York is not good.
Many feel isolated, overworked, and unappreciated. I have been repeatedly surprised in recent years by how often priests complain about the state of things (off-the-record, of course, as the vast majority fear being seen as insubordinate).
During the past few days, Cardinal Egan has directed the transfer of dozens of priests. Many are quite unhappy. Some are really unhappy. Morale, let’s say, is not going up.
Now, priests are reassigned every year. It’s part of diocesan life. But I’m told that many priests who did not expect to be moved got the news in a simple phone call from downtown, with no warning and little time to prepare. The priest personnel board had minimal input and did not know what was coming.
“A lot of guys are hurt and this will have a long-term effect,” one priest told me.
Of course, many people will see these moves as another sign that Cardinal Egan’s retirement is imminent—that he’s taking care of business in his final days. Speculation over when his retirement will be announced is close to rampant these days.
But I don’t know. Some people think that the cardinal will be around for a while. Egan may be 76, but Detroit’s Cardinal Maida is still hanging on at 78.
And when it comes to the Catholic Church, does anything ever play out the way it’s expected to? (Well, there was the election of B16…)
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 at 10:02 am by Gary Stern.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Share and Enjoy: 
| 
Print
| 
Email
The world of religion, we don't have to tell you, is vast. The purpose of this blog is for Stern to note, flag and comment on some of the more interesting religious developments on the scene – weighty and quirky, somber and laughable, far away and just down the road. He won't interpret Scripture, take sides in conflicts or judge anyone. But he will take advantage of the journalist's license to observe.
The way Edward M. Cardinal Egan deals with priests is appalling and unchristian. No other segment of working society would stand for it. However, the cardinal’s ways are not new.
In 2002, Cardinal Egan named a new pastor to Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, 14th Street, NYC. Under the spiritual care and administration of Fr. Charles Murr, from 1998 to 2002 the parish family quadrupled. Fr. Murr, was saying five to six masses on Sunday to accommodate the astounding number of people (mostly young, mostly male). In fact, Fr. Murr begged the cardinal for a new and much larger church. Finally, Fr. Murr got what he wanted for his amazing parish.
The problem was in mid – course, Cardinal Egan appointed a new pastor in Fr. Murr’s stead, but, “forgot” to inform Fr. Murr, who found out about it by publication in a neighboring church bulletin, after much hearsay and rumor. Likewise, the cardinal also “forgot” to give Fr. Murr a new assignment. For three months Fr. Murr lived on the hospitality of other archdiocesan priests, who housed him.
Fr. Murr was finally assigned to St. Francis de Sales Parish, on Lexington Avenue, NYC, and after several months discovered the three ‘houseguests’ were Basque separatists, situated there personally by the Archbishop Egan.
When I and others wrote Egan’s office to complain about the treatment of one of New York’s really fine priests , I got a form letter back that half-heartedly apologized, saying: “…sometimes we [the chancellery] forget to cross our t’s and dot our i’s. ” However, the response was much more positive of then those in religious orders who, after corresponding with Archbishop were rapidly transferred or requested to submit a letter of apology under direction from their superiors … for no apparent reason. One could say the Cardinal is a bully.
There are other stories about Egan’s indifference to his priests that I know of first hand.
I know many of those priests all are united on one single issue: a new and worthy archbishop for New York! From their lips to God’s ear!