"This was the most delightful day in my seven years as
archbishop of New York," Edward Cardinal Egan told me in an
exclusive interview following the press conference announcing the
$22.5 million gift from Robert W. Wilson to an archdiocesan
inner-city scholarship program. "Our schools are among our
best charities. We give our students hope. We give them the tools
to succeed. We give them the best spiritual guidance, which has
been the basis for the schools' wonderful achievements," he
said.
I asked the cardinal how this gift to his scholarship program
came about. "Mr. Wilson has been a generous supporter of our
schools for some time. When we presented a statement last year
indicating the availability of 8,000 seats in the inner-city
schools, he asked if that figure was accurate." Susan
George, the executive director of the Archdiocese's Inner-City
Scholarship Fund, assured him that it was, the cardinal said.
"He's a statistician and he can probably explain it better
than I can," the cardinal said. "3,000 students will be
accommodated this September, another 3,000 next year and the next
2,000 by 2010."
Cardinal Egan expressed heartfelt gratitude to Mr. Wilson and
disclosed that following the news of his generosity, other
donations had come through in the amount of $4.5 million,
bringing the total gifts to $27 million for the program.
Mr. Wilson's gift was described as the largest in the history of
the archdiocese.
When I asked if that gift would stop the school closures, he
asked, "What closures? The media has come up with that term,
but what we have done is merged the nearby schools so that
students can attend the schools with the best facilities, the
best chemistry labs, etcetera." Only two schools were closed
two years ago, he added, and enrollment was up last year by 480.
I wondered whether the students who are already attending the
parochial schools will be eligible for these scholarships.
"Alicia," he said, "as you well know, tuition
costs will be kept down if the school has full enrollment.
Otherwise, tuition costs will continue to rise." The
cardinal knows that I've sent all six of my children to parochial
school and I certainly could not have afforded the rising tuition
costs without some form of scholarship assistance.
Cardinal Egan emphasized that all children are welcome to apply
but that there will be no change in the Catholic school
curriculum. "Currently, 37% of our students are
non-Catholic, and all the students take the Regents tests. We do
not cherry pick students to take them, unlike in the public
schools where only certain students take the Regents," he
said. "The success of our schools is due to the fact that we
have the best principals, teachers and parents."
He reminded me that the scholarships are not full scholarships
but rather will cover what poor families are unable to pay
towards the fees.
Cardinal Egan then expressed disappointment in Albany's failure
to pass a tuition tax-deduction for parochial school parents, but
he understood the pressure that the Democrat legislators were
under. He also said he thinks that the governor did the best he
could. The cardinal said he hopes that the legislators continue
working towards this and realize that it's in everybody's best
interests.
We also talked about the church closings, which have also drawn
criticism from some parishioners. The most controversial closing
involves St. Brigid's in the East Village. When the cardinal
first came to New York, the church's pastor invited the cardinal
to visit the church and showed him a caliper in place that showed
how the wall was separating from the building. The pastor warned
him how dangerous this was and urged him to close. Two years
later, the pastor was telling the cardinal not to close. His is
not an easy job.
I've known Cardinal Egan personally for around five years, since
we connected after he read one of my columns praising the
Catholic school education I received and for which I will be
eternally grateful. I remember him telling me at the time to
imagine what he could do with the $12 billion that the Department
of Education gets for the public school system. Consider the
results that the parochial school system gets with a fraction of
those funds: The percentage of high school seniors who graduate
is 96%; the percentage of graduates who pursue post-secondary
education is 97%. Students attending Catholic inner city
elementary schools in the Archdiocese have outperformed New York
City public school students in the 4th and 8th grade math and
English standardized tests in the past five years. This profile
is of the inner city schools where more than 50% of the students
come from single-parent homes and 50% are near or below the
federal poverty level.
The results were enough to impress Mr. Wilson, who appearing with
Cardinal Egan at the press conference, identified himself as an
atheist who nonetheless appreciates the job parochial schools do
in the inner-city.
As for the cardinal, he could not have spoken more
enthusiastically when he told me, "In my opinion this is not
only a tremendous gift to the Catholic school system but to the
entire city of New York."