Rome

Yesterday's unusual reply by Cardinal Edward Egan to a critical and anonymous letter about him circulating in New York's archdiocese would have once sent major ripples across the city's political landscape. That it hasn't is a measure of the diminished influence of the Catholic hierarchy in public life here, a fact that critics of the cardinal say has less to do with any major cultural shifts in the church than with the man at the helm. (This month's dissent was foreshadowed in the Observer last year by the Rev. John Duffell, a Roman Catholic priest at the Church of the Ascension on the West Side, who told me "The archbishop has been the religious leader in New York for a very long time. I wonder if the cardinal really appreciates the value and importance of that position," He added that the role of the religious community is to make room for a moral dimension in the public debate. "In my opinion, that role has been somewhat diminished in recent years.") Under Egan's predecessor, Cardinal John O'Connor, the archbishop of New York was considered one of the most high-profile positions in the city. While O'Connor had no role, of course, in dictating city policy, his voice was often sought after and listened to by mayors and other powerbrokers. Such extraordinary dissent from within the church, with charges that Egan overlooked "spiritual needs and concerns" of New York's clergy and Catholics, would have been startling to say the least under O'Connor. The accusation that Egan showed "unnatural fear of the media" would have been risible. O'Connor never met a camera he didn't like.

It is thus a testament to the merit of the charges, which were apparently written by priests and then posted on the Catholic news blog Whispers in the Loggia, that the complaints hardly registered outside the cardinal's Madison Ave residence.

There is a wide perception in the New York, and American, church that Egan is less attuned to his local archdiocese than he is with the inner workings of the Vatican. (That he left New York days after the Sept 11th attacks for a conference in Rome has been a lasting blemish on his record.) This month's letter, serious enough to hasten an official dismissal by Egan and a show of strength from his supporters, threatens to be another embarrassment as the cardinal approaches his 75th birthday, when he is required by church law to offer to the pope his resignation as archbishop.

His quick response (apparently reminding priests that he was a frequent visitor to hospitals, prisons and troubled parishes) could have less to do with defending his record in New York than with securing his reputation in Rome. Many priests in New York agree, under their breath, with church watchers in the Vatican that Egan really prefers Rome, where he served as a judge on the Sacred Roman Rota, a Vatican Court, for 14 years after teaching theology at the Pontifical North American College in Vatican City.

By rallying supporters and refusing to accept the criticism, Egan perhaps adds to his standing in the Vatican as an effective administrator with proven cost-cutting skills. It may not help his popularity quite as much, however, here in New York.

--Jason Horowitz

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Wouldn't it be weird if Madonna got divorced from Guy Ritchie? Like, soon?

And why have, like, eighteen people mentioned this idea in the last week?

Madonna is a good bit shy of 50. Two-thirds, or so, of second marriages end in divorce. The former pop tartlet is currently on tour, heading towards Rome, and upsetting Catholics (again) with the use Christ imagery in her show. What if she were soon upsetting them with that modern practice that is second-least-beloved-of-Catholics—divorce?

Update: Madonna pal says no way.

Having vowed not to f--- up another dinner party, I said I'd report on a party last weekend, and my continuing effort to socialize myself. Herewith:

I thought I did fine. I didn't seem to make anyone uncomfortable. I probably laughed too loud at an anecdote a friend told, about a big meeting of executives in New York, to which one woman showed up late, with her neck in a brace, and to cover her lateness and the accessory, said, "Kama sutra position 33," as she found her way to a chair. I say too loud because the storyteller then explained that no one at the meeting laughed because the woman who said it had a reputation—so she wasn't going counter to type, which would have been very funny; she was merely trying to scandalize the group. But another guy at the table also laughed very hard, even more loutishly than I did, and he and I both made "Kama sutra position 33" a running joke. I think I went a little over the line on that; I had a little too much to drink.

My wife, who is well-bred, saw it somewhat differently. "Your grade is a B-. You had an easy crowd and you still made a few mistakes. There was no reason for you to make any mistakes given the ease of the group, and the fact that you didn't have any weird competitive feelings about any of them. When you're feeling weird and competitive, you do your dry drunk thing. You insist that we should all discuss Muriel Spark, and then you give us a lecture. I remember you telling me that time that you didn't feel that the group was intellectual enough and you wanted to yank it up by its bootstraps. I don't think you can yank up a social Saturday night party into an intellectual gathering.

"You get points for trying to flow with the crowd and not trying to convert anybody in that rubelike unsophisticated way. You didn't say anything weirdly sexual. You don't get points for that, but you don't get any points off for that. You get the B for actually trying to be in the situation, trying to be In Rome. You never usually do that. But the reason it's a B-, you didn't really contribute, you tried to be right on the edge with some of your announcements. Do you understand what it means to sing for your supper? That doesn't mean you stand up and perform and speechify, it means you're in the choir, and you go along with the chorus."

Huh. Good advice. Keep you posted...

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Bill Weld has, his spokeswoman says, been dispatching the occasional postcard to Eliot Spitzer from his swing along the "supposed ribbon of gloom."

Apparently lots of teeth and no rickets up there. Though it certainly isn't conventional wisdom that the parts of Upstate deeply dependent on state handouts want to be told they're actually doing just fine.

The cards carry short notes like, "Rome wasn't rebuilt with a phrase!" and "Wish you were here!")

"We wanted to let Mr. Spitzer know we were thinking about him the entire trip," the spokeswoman, Andrea Tantaros, says.

Apparently there's also a care package in the works.

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