Home for priests gets Cardinal's bequest

The late Cardinal Edward Egan did not forget his beloved retired priests when he set about writing his will.

At the end of April, a will filed in Manhattan Surrogate Court revealed that Cardinal Egan made plans to direct $100,000 of his estate to the John Cardinal O’Connor Clergy Residence in Riverdale. In a sense, it is small wonder Cardinal Egan should have directed the funds to the home. The residence, which he dedicated in 2003, was one of his ideas.

“These priests had given their lives,” said Joseph Zwilling, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of New York. “They had administered to their parishes for years, and Cardinal Egan had tremendous affection for them.”

The residence is currently home to 28 retired priests, including former bishops. One late resident, Msgr. John Doherty, took it upon himself to tell the story of the home and its residents in a 2004 book, A House on Arlington, which was quoted in a 2010 report in the Press.

“All these priests were ‘war babies,’ as they sometimes called themselves. Some had entered the seminary as World War II was brewing in Europe, with winds circling around the States. Many of them had spent their seminary years in the midst of the war, and after ordination, all spent their early years of ministry in parishes and schools and other assignments that were dominated by a culture recovering from war,” Msgr. Doherty wrote.

The building now dedicated to the late Cardinal O’Connor was first constructed in 1902 for the Sisters of the Visitation. When economic hardship caused a number of monasteries to close in the 1980s, the sisters took up a new residence and the building was used for a prep program for students planning to attend St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers.

Cardinal Egan, whose estate was valued at $1.5 million — including at least $525,000 in cash — also left behind valuables including chalices, crosses and his Yamaha S6 grand piano, which will be placed in the prayer hall of the Yonkers seminary.

On a recent day, sweltering heat warmed trees in bloom around the John Cardinal O’Connor Clergy Residence since Cardinal Egan’s passing on March 6. Construction on the Cardinal Edward Egan Pavilion, which began in 2012, whirred. The priests’ residence looked out on the blue Hudson River from a hill at 5655 Arlington Ave.

Mr. Zwilling, the spokesman for the Archdiocese, said he could not speculate on how the funds donated in Cardinal Egan’s will would be allocated at the home.

Numerous calls to Dion Senal, the administrator of the home, went unreturned.

But Mr. Zwilling said the message sent by Cardinal Egan’s donation was clear.

“It means that he is continuing to care for the priests in his flock, as a natural father would care for his children.”