A Brief Interview With the Cardinal CNY: Your Eminence, readers have been inquiring about the article concerning the archdiocese in The New York Times of Feb. 5, and especially about your piano. Is there any truth to the report that your piano has been moved to some undisclosed location?
Cardinal Egan: About a dozen years ago, I bought a piano secondhand from the Jesuit university in Fairfield, Conn. When I was appointed to New York, it was brought to the Archbishop's Residence on Madison Avenue and it has never been moved even one inch in any direction since that time. It is where it has been for the past nine years.
CNY: You are said in the article to play the piano every day. Is that true?
Cardinal Egan: When someone showed me the article, we had a good laugh together. There has been so much to do that I have not had the time to sit down to play even a scale since last summer. I fear that the piano might be feeling neglected, though I suspect it might also be enjoying its recent notoriety.
CNY: Was the article equally accurate regarding your retirement?
Cardinal Egan: I know no one outside the Congregation for Bishops in the Vatican who would have any worthwhile information on that subject. Still, I would note that I am two years beyond the date for retirement and it may come at any time.
CNY: What do you think about such articles as the one published on Feb. 5?
Cardinal Egan: Hopefully, few take them seriously. Still, the suggestion in the article that nothing has happened in the archdiocese over the past nine years apart from "closings" is a bit ugly. I trust that the faithful know better.
Catholic New York — February 12, 2009