The 2.5 million Catholics of the Archdiocese of New York may soon witness something that their parents, grandparents and immigrant great-grandparents never did: the retirement of an archbishop.The archdiocese will turn 200 in April, but all 11 of its previous leaders - bishops and later archbishops - have died in office (even if the first never actually touched American soil).
Cardinal Edward Egan does not appear likely to join them.
Egan turned 75 in April and submitted his formal retirement papers to the Vatican, leaving his future in the hands of Pope Benedict XVI.
Observers within and without the archdiocese believe Benedict will accept Egan's retirement and appoint a new archbishop at some point in the next year, possibly in early 2008 or after the bicentennial and the pope's visit to New York in April.
"We don't know when it will be," said Egan's spokesman, Joseph Zwilling. "Whatever the Holy Father wants is what Cardinal Egan wants. He will do whatever the Holy Father asks of him."
Egan is not likely to go far, whenever retirement comes, Zwilling said.
"He expects he will stay somewhere in New York," he said. "He will be the first to admit that he's a city boy."
Benedict and his advisers in the Vatican may be in the process of trying to answer two related questions in regard to the future of the Archdiocese of New York: When should Egan retire? And who should replace him as archbishop?
Or the questions may already be answered.
Bishops and archbishops who lead dioceses - known as ordinaries - rarely retired before Vatican II. Archbishop of Melbourne Daniel Mannix, for instance, died in 1963 at 99 after serving for 46 years.
But canon law was amended in 1966 to set 75 as the age when bishops submit retirement papers.
As far as Egan's retirement date, the pope may consider many factors, including Egan's desires, the needs of the archdiocese and the availability of his top choice for successor, said Monsignor Ronny Jenkins, a canon lawyer and associate general secretary of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Detroit's Cardinal Adam Maida is still serving even though he turned 75 in March 2005.
"It's basically up to the pope," Jenkins said.
Although there are several possible scenarios, most observers believe a successor will be named when Egan's retirement is announced.
"I would be willing to put money down that's how it will happen in New York," said the Rev. Thomas Reese, author of "Inside the Vatican."
The process for choosing a successor is more or less managed by the apostolic nuncio to the U.S., Archbishop Pietro Sambi. It is his job to consult with the movers and shakers in the American Catholic hierarchy and to submit three names, ranked by preference, to the Vatican's Congregation for Bishops.
The congregation vets the names and makes a recommendation to the pope.
At this moment, few people know where the process stands.
"The whole thing is done very secretively," Reese said. "If there is a consensus among the American cardinals, the nuncio and the Congregation for Bishops, it can go very smoothly and rapidly. If there's disagreement, it can go slowly."
Once the decisions are made and an announcement comes, the transfer of power is a simple affair. A papal document, a bull, naming the new archbishop will be presented to the archdiocese's consultors, a group of priests who have certain administrative responsibilities.
"When they acknowledge the authenticity of the bull, the power is transferred with that act," said Monsignor Robert Trisco, professor emeritus of theology and religious studies at Catholic University in Washington, D.C.
Egan will become archbishop emeritus and temporary administrator of the archdiocese, while his successor will become archbishop designate.
A Mass will be scheduled at St. Patrick's Cathedral, where the new archbishop will be officially installed. At that time, Sambi will read aloud the papal bull, walk the new archbishop to the cathedra, or bishop's seat, and hand him his crozier, the bishop's staff.
A new era will begin for the Archdiocese of New York.
And Egan, a cardinal for life, will have no defined role whatsoever in the archdiocese. Then what?
"When a bishop retires, he is free to pursue whatever interests he would like to pursue," said Susan Gibbs, spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C.
She would know. Washington has seen several retired archbishops come and go in recent years.
Today, as Archbishop Donald Wuerl runs things, Archbishop Emeritus Cardinal Theodore McCarrick uses Washington as his home base as he travels the world to promote religious freedom. Another former archbishop, Cardinal William Baum, who left in 1990 to serve in the Vatican, also spends part of his retirement in Washington.
The role of former archbishops often depends on their relationship with the current archbishop.
Reese noted that Wuerl and McCarrick have an excellent relationship, which was on display at a recent dinner for which McCarrick was master of ceremonies.
"It takes a very humble man like Wuerl, who was in the audience, to allow his predecessor to kind of upstage him," Reese said. "But he doesn't have a big ego."
In Baltimore, where Archbishop Edwin O'Brien was installed Oct. 1, newly retired Cardinal William Keeler has said he plans to continue working on Catholic relations with other religious communities, a longtime passion.
Egan will retain numerous responsibilities to Vatican institutions. He is a member of one of the Vatican's top courts, the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, as well as the Pontifical Council for the Family, the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See, the Council of Cardinals for the Study of the Organizational and Economic Concerns of the Holy See, and other bodies.
As far as New York goes, Egan has no clear plans, Zwilling said.
"He is looking forward to confirmations, visiting parishes and giving some of those talks he's always asked to give, but declines because he doesn't like leaving the archdiocese," he said.
"If he was given the opportunity to teach somewhere, I think he would love it."
Other New York bishops came close to retiring.
Bishop John Dubois, who led the diocese during the early 1800s, was very ill for the last three years of his life and pretty much turned over control to Bishop John Hughes, who would ultimately replace him.
"Technically, Dubois wasn't retired - just incapacitated," said Monsignor Thomas Shelley of Fordham University, the author of a forthcoming history of the archdiocese.
Cardinal John O'Connor was all but ready to retire when he became ill in his late 70s. A spacious office for his retirement was all set on the grounds of St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers.
But he died as archbishop in 2000.
Had O'Connor not gotten sick, he may well have cast a large shadow in New York during his retirement.
"I think it would have been very difficult to follow John O'Connor if John O'Connor was alive and well," said Christopher Bellitto, a church historian at Kean University in Union, N.J.
Even if Egan does become the first archbishop of New York to retire, he figures to join his predecessors at some point. Each of the eight late archbishops, six of them cardinals, are entombed in a crypt beneath the altar of St. Patrick's Cathedral.
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