By Tom Deignan

WELL, you can say this. Like the New York Yankees, Irish Catholic priests know how to stay in the headlines.

The trouble is (again, like the Yankees) they are not always in the headlines for the best of reasons.

So, not long after two priests from Ireland were charged with stealing millions from their Florida parish, a shadowy band of New York priests are circulating a letter slamming the current leader of the flock, Edward Cardinal Egan.

This comes as Egan’s 75th birthday looms next spring. That’s when he is supposed to hand in a resignation letter to Pope Benedict XVI. Often, popes have not accepted such letters and allowed the cardinals to stay on the job up to five additional years.

A certain element within New York’s clergy apparently wants to dump Egan as soon as possible. Their concerns were posted on a Catholic Internet blog called Whispers in the Loggia. (So much for the ancient and untechnological ways of the church.)

The critics cite Egan’s low public profile and his tough fiscal policies. In the letter, written anonymously, they also made an error saying Egan fled the city days after 9/11. In fact it was the following month.

Either way, already people are throwing names around of those who might replace Egan. This raises two important points related to the historically Irish nature of the New York Archdiocese, easily the most prominent in the U.S.

First of all, those who might succeed Egan include at least two who are Irish American — Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan and Military Services Archbishop Edwin O’Brien.

Many are still waiting for the day when the dominance of Irish New York cardinals, stretching all the way back to the 1840s and “Dagger” John Hughes, who laid the foundation for St. Patrick’s Cathedral, comes to an end.

Given New York’s heavy Hispanic population, the day will surely come when such a cardinal is named. Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas Di Marzio could also become the first Italian leader of New York’s Catholics.

Obviously, many of the upstate counties represented by the Archdiocese remain heavily Irish American. But the fact that New York’s Catholics have been led by Irish Americans in three centuries now is a testament to just how Irish the city’s clergy has been and remains.

Indeed, perhaps the more important point to make here regarding Egan’s current problem requires us not only to look ahead but to look to the very recent past. We need to look at the man Egan replaced, John Cardinal O’Connor.

It is astonishing that, six years after his death, O’Connor continues to cast a long shadow. In fact, if you look at the list of grievances made by Egan’s clerical critics, they more or less match the strong points of O’Connor.

O’Connor, after all, did not have “an unnatural fear” of the media spotlight. He embraced it, and used it to his advantage.

O’Connor was sorely missed in the wake of 9/11 as well. True, perhaps Egan should have thought twice about leaving town so soon after the tragedy, especially given the losses sustained by heavily Irish Catholic occupations such as the Fire Department.

But still, no one could have replaced O’Connor at such a time.

Similarly, it must be added that — like it or not — Egan was brought in not as a charismatic leader but as a guy whose job it was to balance the books. That doesn’t mean Egan can’t do a much better job tending to other matters.

Still, not only did Egan have a tough act to follow. Organizing the church’s finances is a thankless job — period.

In the end, don’t expect Egan to be going anywhere anytime soon.

As of Tuesday, many were coming to Egan’s defense.

As The New York Times reported, “A council of senior priests in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York closed ranks yesterday around their archbishop, Cardinal Edward M. Egan, who had been denounced in an anonymous letter said to have been written by some of his clergymen.”

Egan’s supporters released a statement saying it was “upset and dismayed that our archbishop has been personally vilified in this manner. We stand with him in confidence, and look forward to his continued ministry to the clergy, religious and laity of the Archdiocese of New York,” the priests said.

All eyes will soon turn to the Pope when Egan turns 75 early next year.

(Contact at tomdeignan @earthlink.net.)