[Cicero]

I was in Cdl Eagan's diocese while he was bishop of Bridgeport. He had a splendid ecclesiastical presence, a deep voice, an impressive manner, which are always helpful. I read many of his weekly columns in the diocesan paper. Sometimes the paper would publish something a little on the edge, as almost all of them do, but Egan's writings were always entirely orthodox and well done.

I suspect that he and bishop Wuerl may have the same problem. They are orthodox, but they are team players, who go along to get along. That's the way to build a career.

It has some advantages to the Church, as well. A collegial bishop, who gets on well with donors and politicians is an advantage, and the money and influence go to good purposes.

But sometimes there comes a limit, when you can't go along to get along. If you've made a habit of it all your life, it can be hard to suddenly be confronted by such a challenge.

But it CAN happen. St. Thomas a Beckett was certainly such a person. He never would have risen to such eminence if he hadn't been a suave politician and a Norman grandee. St. Thomas More was another such person. There was no better, more amusing dinner companion at a royal feast.

Let's pray that these Cardinal archbishops will finally be pushed into a corner like More was, and at that point refuse to give ground any further.

[livius]

It could definitely happen, although I'm not sure what it would take. I used to live in New York when Cardinal O'Connor was there, and I remember one time the City decided that Catholic foster homes would have to provide "access" to abortion and birth control for the children in the homes. He refused and then simply said he'd close the homes. Since Catholic social services provided the great majority of foster homes there, the city quietly backed down.

Cardinal O'Connor may have been a terrible administrator, from a financial point of view, and he was not even good at dealing with the clergy, because he was too trusting. But he was sure good at standing up to pressure from the state, and truly excellent on pro-life things.

I moved just about the time Egan came in, but the thing that stuns me, when I read the New York press, is how silent he is. Cdl O'Connor was very high profile, and whenever anything in the city happened, people wanted to know what O'Connor thought about it. Not Egan, unfortunately. I guess that's largely a matter of personal style, and perhaps if Egan is really pressured, he'll have to take a stand. I think he retires shortly, although after that stupid letter that some NY priests wrote, criticizing him, the Vatican will probably leave him there longer just to teach the NYC clergy a lesson.