When the pounds began to show, he turned them into a laugh line. Patting his midsection, he told audiences, \u201cNew York has grown on me.\u201d\u009d And when the calorie-counting Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg scolded him \u201d\u201d bluntly advising him to lose weight because \u201cwe\u2019d like to keep you around for a while,\u201d\u009d in Archbishop Dolan\u2019s telling \u201d\u201d the prelate burst into laughter and hugged him.<\/p>\n
\u201cCall me Timothy,\u201d\u009d he said.<\/p>\n
But Archbishop Dolan has some less palatable duties ahead of him. The recession has worsened a chronic budget squeeze in the archdiocese, increased demand for its frayed web of social service programs and added urgency to a long-planned realignment of resources.<\/p>\n
The parishes and schools of the archdiocese needed an added $30 million infusion from headquarters in fiscal 2009 to meet expenses, officials said.<\/p>\n
Whatever else it does, the good will he sows now among the archdiocese\u2019s 2.5 million Catholics will help stem resentments when some of those places are closed, said Msgr. Thomas J. Bergin, a former vicar of archdiocesan education. \u201cPeople have warmed to him,\u201d\u009d he said. \u201cHe will need that.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
In interviews, Catholic leaders, scholars and lay people praised the friendly, politically moderate tone that Archbishop Dolan set in his first year….<\/p>\n