Because I was fairly fluent in Spanish and had pastoral experience in a bilingual, bicultural parish, I was selected by my religious superiors in the summer of 1962 to fill a need in the central administrative office of the Archdiocese of New York for a priest who spoke Spanish and had pastoral experience in a parish with a large Puerto Rican population.
However, in those days the position demanded a doctorate in Canon Law. So, I was removed from my West Side parish assignment, and sent to Rome for three years to get the necessary doctorate.
A bolt out of the blue!
But, I arrived in Rome the week before the opening of the Second Vatican Council and was there for three of its four sessions—a unintended blessing for me and a helpful asset for the archdiocese.
I returned in the early summer of 1965, a newly minted canonist and was appointed an Assistant Chancellor of the Archdiocese of New York.
I was the junior in the Chancery Office, younger than the other five clerics, all first-generation Americans of immigrant Irish parents: Coadjutor Archbishop John Maguire, Msgr. Terence Cooke (soon to be made an Auxiliary Bishop). Msgr. Joseph O’Brien, Msgr. Thomas Heneghan, and Msgr. Joseph Murphy.
I didn’t quite fit the stereotype. I was a third generation descendent of Irish Catholic immigrants on my mother’s side and a third and fourth generation descendent of German Jewish immigrants on my father’s. (I was somewhat irreverently bestowed the nickname “the Jew boy” by one of the secretaries.)
Although we all had special canonical faculties and could deal with general concerns, we each had a kind of specialization, too.
Mine was assisting Msgr. Murphy, who assisted Msgr. Cooke, in financial and civil legal affairs.
I think in providing canonical advice and authorizations to the priests who consulted us, I was considered to be approachable and relying on their good pastoral judgements in most matters.
From time to time, I worked on special projects, as assigned. An important one, for the post-conciliar church, was the reorganization of the archdiocese into vicariates and the establishment of the priests’ council.
With the death of Cardinal Francis Spellman near the end of 1967, matters and procedures gradually changed.
Bishop Cooke became the Archbishop of New York, Archbishop Maguire retired, and Msgr. O’Brien headed the Chancery Office.
I had been recruited for the Chancery position by Archbishop Maguire, so it was understandable that the new administration might have different idea about staffing.
I received three generous offers of new positions from the new archbishop: assistant to the General Secretary of the U.S. bishops’ conference in Washington, Newman chaplain at Columbia University, and lastly, Director of the Spanish Speaking Apostolate.
Clearly, I was to be reassigned; of the three positions, I chose the one concerned with the coordination and leadership of Hispanic ministry in the archdiocese, especially since that related to why I was in the Chancery Office in the first place.
I began this new ministry in 1969 after four years of service as Assistant Chancellor and served in that role for another four years.
26 January 2022