New Man In Town

By ANNE BUCKLEY

On the day Bishop Edward M. Egan of Bridgeport became archbishop-elect of New York, May 11, he arrived in Manhattan with an acceptable degree of awe, but not as a stranger. He had been here "for three years and seven wonderful months" as vicar for education in the Archdiocese of New York, he reminded the press and the people. During that time, 1985 to 1988, he said, "I came to know New Yorkers and the seven wonderful counties." His mention of the seven upper counties several times on that first day indicated his understanding of the 10-county archdiocese, which outsiders tend to think of only as New York City.

Nor had he been far away during the past 12 years. Fairfield County, Conn., which is the entire Bridgeport Diocese, is "a suburb of New York," he remarked in a CNY interview. It is, in fact, closer to the See city of the archdiocese than some of those upper counties. He pointed out that people in Fairfield County commute to Manhattan and find their recreation and culture here. The archbishop-elect has been doing that himself. An accomplished musician, he found "Siegfried" at the Metropolitan Opera wonderful this season, he said. And "Tristan and Isolde" was thrilling.

More important than knowing and liking the territory, however, was knowing so many of the people here, especially priests of the archdiocese with whom he had worked closely as vicar for education and who welcomed him enthusiastically last week. They will likely provide a springboard for accomplishing Archbishop-elect Egan's top priority: fostering "a united and happy priesthood."

It was his priority in the Bridgeport Diocese, as well. He gathered priests for prayer and parties regularly. "You have to put joy in their faces," he explained. That attracts young men to the idea of becoming priests. It also, obviously, enhances the priests' service to parishes, which Archbishop-elect Egan stresses as the central element of a diocese.

"I want to get to know the priests," he declared on his first day in New York. "I will spend a lot of time to meet and pray with them. My first priority is to involve the priests in prayer and consultation."

He said that traveling the 630 square miles of the Bridgeport Diocese visiting its 88 parishes was "a piece of cake." He said he visits four or five parishes on a weekend. Not only does he know every priest, but every principal and DRE, he said. Bridgeport's St. Augustine's Cathedral seats only 600, so it is not the focus of the diocese as St. Patrick's is, he pointed out. He would celebrate Holy Week, Christmas, Pentecost there. But weekends have been for parishes.

Now he has 412 parishes spread over 4,717 square miles. He'll get to as many as possible, he said. But he will begin his getting-to-know-you mission with fraternal meetings of groups of priests, "having all the priests in," as he put it.

He'll likely find a way to know the school principals and religious education directors, too. Religious education is high on his list of priorities.

Archbishop-elect Egan is very proud of his work in the Bridgeport Diocese. CNY will cover the wide range of his projects there in a special issue at the time of his installation in New York. Yet, he shows no reluctance about leaving. He will bring to New York ideas and approaches he found viable there, just as he brought things to Bridgeport from New York, among them a religious education curriculum still in use in schools and catechetical programs.

"I have happy memories," he said, of his time in New York. "Memories of the cardinal, the directors of religious education, the teachers, the priests."

"I feel that I have returned home to New York where I always felt at home," he said.

That was obvious when he came last week as Pope John Paul's choice as New York's archbishop. And everyone he met that day gave him a welcome.