New York revamps seminaries
By DICK RYAN
Special to the National Catholic Reporter New York
In office not quite a year, Cardinal Edward Egan is already
putting his stamp on the New York archdiocese, most noticeably with a major
overhaul of the New York seminary system, one of several administrative
measures the new cardinal and archbishop is implementing.
There are indications that Egan may soon close six Catholic
elementary schools in an effort to erase some of the red ink bleeding from the
archdioceses multimillion-dollar deficits that were inherited from the
late Cardinal John OConnor. Egan has sent these schools a letter
notifying them they have until the end of April to develop a detailed plan on
how they will be self-sufficient in the years to come. Without such a plan, the
schools will be closed.
The archdiocese has already announced that several of the
administrative departments of the archdiocese will be reduced in size or merged
with other offices so as to achieve a balanced budget for the central
administration of the archdiocese.
Egan was formerly bishop of Bridgeport, Conn., where he had earned
a reputation as a successful fundraiser and management whiz and also as someone
who had revitalized the seminary system by recruiting a substantial number of
young men to the priesthood.
Since coming to New York, hes appointed Msgr. Peter. G. Finn
as the new rector of the entire archdiocesan seminary system. It includes the
major seminary, St. Josephs Seminary at Dunwoodie in Yonkers; St. John
Neumann Pre-Seminary in Riverdale; and Cathedral Preparatory High School.
Major changes are afoot at all three schools. The Neumann facility
in Riverdale will be converted into a residence for retired priests, while the
seminary students who had studied there will continue their formation at St.
Josephs Seminary. The high school students at Cathedral Prep, who attend
classes at various Catholic high schools in the archdiocese, will resume their
seminary formation in the philosophy wing of St. Josephs during specially
scheduled time periods during the month.
These moves enable the archdiocese to use manpower more
effectively, and there is also a cost-saving factor involved with the
consolidation of all three seminary programs to one location, said Joseph
Zwilling, director of communications for the archdiocese. Zwilling said Finn
had been selected to direct the archdiocesan seminary system because Egan
thought he was the best man to handle the consolidation of the seminaries.
Part of my job will be to encourage and support young men
thinking about the priesthood, and recruitment will be part of everybodys
efforts, said Finn, who, prior to his years as pastor of St. Joseph-St.
Thomas Parish on Staten Island, had been director of communications for
OConnor. He made recent headlines in New York when he led a boycott
against the St. Patricks Day Parade on Staten Island because the grand
marshal was a local legislator with a strong pro-choice background.
As part of the seminary shake-up, Fr. Michael Hull, who teaches
sacred scripture at Dunwoodie, will also serve as dean of St. John Neumann
Residence, and Fr. Thomas Lynch, a church history professor at Dunwoodie, will
take on additional tasks as dean of Cathedral Preparatory High School. Fr.
Joseph Tierney, currently dean of students at Dunwoodie, will be its new
vocation director.
Egan has a reputation for being conservative on many issues both
within the church and the culture at large. In 1996 he endorsed the Catholic
Alliance, an affiliate of the Christian Coalition, political arm of
conservative TV preacher Pat Robertson. Some have speculated that the shakeup
of the seminary system reflects Egans desire to create a more
conservative climate in the seminaries in New York.
Zwilling said the replacement of three of the top officials in the
New York seminary system reflects the cardinals desire to have people
already on the faculty at Dunwoodie assume new roles in administration.
For example, Father Hull and Father Lynch have been already assigned at
Dunwoodie and will now also assume additional roles. Their predecessors were
administrators only, and they have been given new assignments outside the
seminary, Zwilling said.
As the new dean of Cathedral Prep, Lynch said recruitment to the
priesthood would be key. He envisions the formation of close ties with Catholic
high school principals and teachers as well as some strong bonds with student
groups in the high schools. Weve been averaging only about 50
seminarians a year at Dunwoodie, and theyre not all New Yorkers,
Lynch said. But thats part of the reality of our times.
According to Zwilling, Egan expects to take a personal role in
recruitment just as he did in Bridgeport, where many admire his making
vocations a personal responsibility.
He had an enthusiasm for the seminary that was very
infectious, said Fr. Kevin Royal, the rector of St. John Fisher Seminary,
the college seminary in Stamford, Conn., that Egan established in 1989 for the
Bridgeport diocese. If he happened to be talking to a young man at school
or anywhere, he would pull out a St. John Fisher card from his pocket and give
it to him to read and think about, Royal said.
In the 60s and later, many priests were almost
embarrassed to suggest a priestly vocation to a young man. But while he was
here, Bishop Egans approach was very successful. Its something
hes very much committed to, Royal said.
A canon lawyer with a reputation as a Vatican loyalist, Egan is a
native of Chicago where he served for a time as secretary to Cardinal John
Cody. He became auxiliary bishop of New York in 1985 and bishop of Bridgeport
in 1988.
He launched a program of closings and mergers of parishes and
schools in Bridgeport, where he also raised more than $43 million dollars to
support education programs, members of religious communities and homes for
retired clergy. When he left Bridgeport, the diocese ranked first among 35
dioceses in the Northeast in its ratio of priests to the Catholic population.
In the same survey, the New York archdiocese came in 31st.
Franciscan Sr. Katarina Schuth said the solution to dwindling
seminary numbers in New York and elsewhere will have to involve more than
phasing out buildings and reshuffling priests.
I think there has to be much more focus on the recruitment
of minority students, especially in New York, said Schuth, who is the
author of three books on the subject of Catholic seminaries and who holds an
endowed chair for the social-sci entific study of religion at the University of
St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn. In other parts of the country, 70 to 80
percent of the seminarians are from minority backgrounds while just the
opposite is true in New York.
We also have to understand that American Catholics have
improved their economic status so that the priesthood is no longer the only way
for a young man to move up on the social scale. There are so many other
attractive career choices available, and also a lot of young people have
serious questions about a life of celibacy.
Also in years past, there was a strong pipeline in the
elementary schools with the sisters, who were often very encouraging on the
subject of vocation, but that has largely disappeared.
In Bridgeport, Egan took a crash course in Spanish, the language
of 36 percent of his parishioners. He is fluent in Latin, French and Italian
and is said to be an accomplished musician.
National Catholic Reporter, April 20,
2001
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