Before departing New York yesterday to join his fellow princes of the church in Rome, Edward Cardinal Egan shared the priorities and criteria he will consider as he votes for Pope John Paul II’s successor.

Addressing members of the press on a terrace adjoining St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the cardinal of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York said the issues of most significance to him as he looks for a new pontiff pertain to the priesthood, the need to bring more people into vocations, and the need to reform the seminary training process.

The dwindling and aging clergy has been cited by many analysts as an issue of grave concern confronting the church worldwide.

New York, Cardinal Egan said, has a special interest in making sure the church has enough clerics and support from Catholics dedicated to a religious calling.

“Our Catholic schools are the biggest treasure in the city of New York,” Cardinal Egan said. He added that 95% of Catholic-school students go on to college in a city where only 40% of students receive a high-school diploma, and that those numbers, and the schools themselves, are “the city’s best-kept secret,” especially considering that 65% of the city’s Catholic schools serve inner-city neighborhoods.

What made those accomplishments possible, however, was that “we didn’t have to pay the people who did the work,” compensating clergy and others who sustained the schools with room and board, the cardinal said. An ability to boost the numbers of priests, nuns, and other Catholics willing to dedicate themselves to the church and its mission, Cardinal Egan suggested, would be an important qualification for John Paul’s successor.

Re-examining the process by which the church trains those priests was also an issue the cardinal said he would be considering at the conclave that will produce the next pontiff. Fifty years ago, Cardinal Egan said, when he was a seminarian, the process of educating priests was “quite a bit different”: Those preparing for the priesthood were more isolated from their families and their communities.

In a world that has changed to become more complex, however, with young people contemplating a religious vocation confronted with more options and choices about how to spend their lives, the cardinal said the next pontiff would have to consider the future of priestly training. At the conclave, Cardinal Egan said, “There will be a big focus in that direction.”

The cardinal made no mention of the sex-abuse scandals that have rocked the church in America.

Because John Paul II was the first non-Italian pope since the 16th century, his successor’s nationality has been a subject of heavy speculation, with some saying a Latin American pope would be of particular benefit to the church in America. Yet Cardinal Egan said the next pontiff’s country of origin would not be a factor in his deliberations. Nearly the entire international community was represented in the archdiocese of New York, the cardinal said, minimizing the impact of the pope’s nationality on the city’s faithful.

And in weighing potential candidates for the pontificate, Cardinal Egan said, “You always vote for the person.” The man who receives Cardinal Egan’s vote, he said, would earn it “because he’d do the best job.”

Hours after his remarks, the cardinal departed for Rome. Cardinal Egan said he would be visiting a friend immediately upon his arrival, before joining the rest of the American delegation of cardinals at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, a seminary near St. Peter’s Basilica. From there, the delegation will proceed to Santa Marta Residence, built by John Paul for the purpose of housing the 117 participating cardinals during their sequestration.

While Cardinal Egan will be representing New York in his ecclesiastical capacity, he invited Mayor Bloomberg to join him in Rome. The mayor is attending the pope’s funeral on Friday and selected a delegation to accompany him, composed of the former City Council speaker and gubernatorial candidate Peter Vallone Sr.; the City Council majority leader, Joel Rivera; Rep. Vito Fossella, Republican of Staten Island; the president of the Polish National Alliance of Brooklyn, Christine Bekker McMullen, and a former president of the Uniform Firefighters Association, James Boyle. The group is scheduled to leave New York tomorrow evening, to arrive in Rome Thursday morning, and to return Friday night.

New York’s governor, too, will pay his respects to John Paul in Rome. It was announced yesterday that Governor Pataki and his wife, Libby, will travel to the Vatican at the invitation of Cardinal Egan. A congressional delegation is also being dispatched and will include Charles Rangel, Democrat of Manhattan, and Senator Kennedy of Massachusetts.

President Bush and the first lady, too, will represent America in mourning John Paul. Among their guests will be two former presidents – George H.W. Bush and William Clinton – and Secretary of State Rice.