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!