He came to town with a reputation for a golden touch at raising money and for being a tough, cost-cutting administrator.
Cardinal Edward M. Egan has done his part for this year's Cardinal's Appeal, bringing in a professional fund-raiser to run the campaign, imposing a tougher burden on his pastors to bring in donations and personally tapping wealthy Roman Catholics for more than $2 million.
But with only two weeks left in the appeal and nearly half the goal unmet, the Archdiocese of New York is now looking to make up the rest from the men and women in the pews, a place where anger at the Catholic hierarchy is running high over evidence that for decades bishops looked away while child-abusing priests were kept in parishes.
Whether they will come through is a big question for Cardinal Egan, who was seen as the best hope to rescue the archdiocese's sinking finances when he was appointed archbishop in 2000 but who has rarely been credited with having the pastoral touch of his predecessor, Cardinal John O'Connor.
The archdiocese said that it had raised $8.2 million as of Wednesday in its annual fund-raising campaign, which has a goal of $15 million and ends May 26. The archdiocese says it is confident that a mail solicitation of modest givers starting in mid-April and appeals by pastors at Masses this month, the final phase of the campaign, will make up the difference. And officials point out that donations continue after the campaign formally ends.
There are plenty of anecdotal indications that the scandal has dampened the enthusiasm of New York-area donors, but no clear evidence that Catholics in the archdiocese, which includes Manhattan, Staten Island, the Bronx and five counties to the north, are broadly punishing the church.
"Are there some people who are angry?" asked Msgr. Charles M. Kavanagh, the archdiocese's vicar for development. "Yes. Are there people who are voting with their pocketbook? I'm sure there are." But, he said, he was satisfied with the results and expected that the goal would be met. The small-donor solicitation amounted to $8 million or $9 million in past years, he said.
But Cardinal Egan is facing pressure that his predecessor did not. Documents cited in news reports have suggested that the cardinal, while bishop of Bridgeport, knew that some priests had been accused of sexually abusing minors but allowed them to keep working in parishes and did not pass on information about them to law enforcement authorities.
New York City's other diocese, which covers Brooklyn and Queens, has not been immune to the trouble but officials say donations from a similar appeal have not dropped. Bishop Thomas V. Daily of Brooklyn has been criticized for failing to act while he was a top official of the Archdiocese of Boston in the early 1980's, and for allowing a priest accused of serious sex abuse to keep serving.
Despite reports about the bishop's role in Boston and reports of abuse in the Brooklyn diocese, pledges to its Annual Stewardship Appeal since Feb. 3 have reached about $5.9 million, well above the goal of slightly more than $4 million, said Frank DeRosa, a spokesman for the diocese. "We're on track to do as well as we did last year," he said.
In the New York Archdiocese, Michael Elmore, a 48-year-old librarian who attends St. Joseph's Church in Greenwich Village and has always contributed to the Cardinal's Appeal in the past, said he would give to Catholic Relief Services this year instead.
Referring to Cardinal Egan, he said, "His behavior has been reprehensible and I do not trust him, because of the way that he behaved when he was bishop of Bridgeport in covering up scandals."
The Rev. Walter F. Modrys of St. Ignatius Loyola Church on the Upper East Side, who has had a disagreement with the cardinal over renovation at his church, said he did not expect to reach his church's goal of $225,000.
"There is a lot of feeling out there, negative feeling among Catholics, that's making it increasingly hard to raise money for the Cardinal's Appeal," he said. He also blamed a more troubled economy.
And at Holy Name of Mary Church in Croton-on-Hudson, where two pastors have been removed over allegations of sexual impropriety, the new pastor, the Rev. Michael Keane, said he expected his parish would barely raise half of its $66,000 goal. "It's hit home, twice in a row," he said.
To respond to worries that donations may go toward settlements or legal fees to defend sex abuse allegations, officials in the New York Archdiocese have shaped their message. "There was a much greater emphasis on our clear-cut needs and where the money was going to go," Monsignor Kavanagh said.
The New York Archdiocese says all of the $15 million will go to Catholic schools and religious education programs, help for poor parishes, social services and pastoral outreach, St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers, and support for retired priests.
The appeal is critical to the operations of the archdiocese. Last year, Cardinal Egan reorganized the financing system. Before, parishes were assessed a lump sum, which included both general assessments on parish income and a goal for the Cardinal's Appeal. Parishes that reached the goal received a 25 percent rebate, and half of any excess. Now, parishes are assessed 7.5 percent of collections and given a goal for the appeal. There is no rebate, and the parish gets 60 percent of any excess. The effect, pastors say, is to increase the amount of money parishes are asked to raise.
Cardinal Egan brought in an outside fund-raiser, Community Counseling Service, last year to run a new kind of campaign for the Cardinal's Appeal. It focused on the biggest donors in the early months of the campaign, in February and March. Pastors, bishops and Cardinal Egan himself attended cocktail parties, large dinners and intimate meals.
By last Friday, the archdiocese had raised $5.8 million from donors who gave more than $1,000 each. Cardinal Egan was personally involved in appeals to a dozen who pledged more than $100,000 each, including one over $1 million, the monsignor said. None had given more than $50,000 before, he said.
Cardinal Egan, in closing schools and offices, has declared fiscal order to be one of his main goals. Monsignor Kavanagh said the deficit had dropped from about $20 million to about $9 million.
Cardinal Egan's predecessor came from a working-class background and was reluctant to ask for donations. One diocese official recalled a meeting at which Cardinal O'Connor told a donor he did not want his money, just his advice. "Can't you take both?" answered the incredulous donor.
Cardinal Egan, by contrast, moves easily in wealthy circles and feels no embarrassment in asking for money. While he was in Bridgeport, the diocese said, it reached or surpassed its appeal goal every year.