WASHINGTON — Cardinal Edward Egan, the archbishop emeritus of New York who balanced the books and strengthened Catholic schools, but avoided the spotlight, died on March 5. He was 82.

Cardinal Egan's funeral Mass will be held at St. Patrick's Cathedral on March 10 at 2 pm, with Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York as the chief celebrant, joined by five cardinals and 30 bishops.

After the Archdiocese of New York confirmed that Cardinal Egan had died following cardiac arrest, Church leaders swiftly reacted to the news.

They expressed sadness at his death. But they also celebrated his remarkable legacy in New York, as well as his previous service as the bishop of Bridgeport, Conn., and in Rome, as a leading canon lawyer and judge on the Roman Rota and the Apostolic Signatura who worked closely with Pope St. John Paul II on the revision of the Code of Canon Law.

“I offer heartfelt condolences to you and to the faithful of the archdiocese,” wrote Pope Francis in a telegram to Cardinal Dolan.

“I join you in commending the late cardinal’s noble soul to God, the Father of mercies, with gratitude for his years of episcopal ministry among Christ’s flock in Bridgeport and New York, his distinguished service to the Apostolic See and his expert contribution to the revision of the Church’s law in the years following the Second Vatican Council.

“To all assembled in St. Patrick’s Cathedral for the Mass of Christian burial and to all those who mourn Cardinal Egan in the sure hope of the Resurrection, I cordially impart my apostolic blessing as a pledge of consolation and peace in the Lord.”

 

Praise From Brother Bishops

Cardinal Raymond Burke, in an email message to the Register, underscored Cardinal Egan’s service to the Church as a gifted canon lawyer.

“During most of my years of service as prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, Cardinal Egan was a member or judge of the signatura. Prior to his appointment as auxiliary bishop of New York, he had served as a judge of the Roman Rota for more than a decade,” said Cardinal Burke.

“I remain always grateful for his teaching of canon law and for his years of service to the Holy See, especially regarding matters of Church discipline.”

“It is most comforting to know that the cardinal was able to receive the full ministrations of the Church at the time of his unexpected death. May he rest in peace,” said the cardinal.

Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, who succeeded then-Bishop Egan in Bridgeport, described his “impressive record of accomplishment [as] a reflection of his energy, enthusiasm and great devotion to the Church.”

“He was especially committed to increasing vocations to the priesthood and to sharing with others in the Church his unique grasp of canon law,” said Archbishop Lori in a statement. 

“May the Lord grant rest to one who gave so much to the Church in so many different ways throughout his many years of generous service.”

Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington recalled his long friendship with Cardinal Egan, dating back to 1963.

“I first came to know him at the Pontifical North American College when I was a seminarian in Rome and then-Father Egan was a young teacher at the college working on his graduate studies in canon law.

“As brother bishops, we worked together in a number of capacities over the years, including as members of the board of directors of the North American College and on various committees of the United States.

“Cardinal Egan conveyed a deep pastoral concern for and dedication to the faithful he served.”

 

Illinois Roots

Born in Oak Park, Ill., in 1932, Edward Michael Egan grew up in a devoutly Catholic home that nurtured his early vocation and helped him survive childhood polio.

After he graduated from Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary in Chicago, he was sent to the University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary in Mundelein, Ill., and then the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He was ordained in 1957.

By 1964, he had earned a doctorate in canon law at the Gregorian and had also returned for a period to Chicago, where he served as the private secretary to Cardinal Albert Meyer.

After completing his doctorate, he served as the secretary to Cardinal John Cody, before he was appointed co-chancellor of the Chicago Archdiocese.

But by 1971, he was back in Rome, where he would spend the next 14 years as a professor of canon law and a judge on the Roman Rota.

“I first got to know Cardinal Egan in the early 1980s, when he was one of my professors at the Pontifical Gregorian University, teaching jurisprudence in the faculty of canon law,” Cardinal Burke told the Register.

“He was a dynamic professor who spoke Latin well. I was not surprised to learn that Pope St. John Paul II had chosen him to be one of the small group of canonists to help the pope review the proposed text of the 1983 Code of Canon Law, canon by canon, before the Holy Father promulgated the code on Jan. 25, 1983.”

Noted Cardinal Burke, “He was most gifted intellectually, linguistically and musically.”

 

Dedication to Education and Vocations

In 1985, he returned to the United States as an auxiliary bishop of New York and the archdiocesan vicar of education. He worked with lay Catholic leaders to shore up Catholic schools, which had suffered from demographic changes and rising costs that made them unaffordable for many black and Hispanics families desperate to obtain a solid education for their children.

Within three years, John Paul appointed him as bishop of Bridgeport. There, he consolidated struggling parishes and ramped up vocations, but also faced mounting criticism for his handling of clergy abuse cases.

Soon after he arrived in Bridgeport, he began plans for establishing St. John Fisher Seminary, which would prepare college and graduate students to become priests.

“He was convinced there were many young men considering the priesthood. All they needed was a place to figure it all out that would also prepare them spiritually and intellectually to share in Christ’s priesthood,” said Msgr. Stephen DiGiovanni, the founding rector of the seminary who was also tapped as the new bishop’s vocations director.

“He always told me to remind men that we are called to figure out what God wants in our lives,” recalled Msgr. DiGiovanni, who said that during his tenure 57 men were ordained by Bishop Egan.

“‘It isn’t your decision to become a priest, but God’s. One merely needs to cooperate, and Our Lord does the rest.’ That was his recipe for vocation work, and he was correct.”

More than two decades later, Cardinal Egan continued to look for opportunities to aid the seminary. And just hours before his death, he spoke by telephone with Father Michael Jones, who once served as his secretary and then vice chancellor, to strategize about a new seminary project.

“He had put a list together of supporters for an expansion project of the seminary and [wanted to] finalize it,” reported Father Jones, who is now the pastor of St. Lawrence Parish in Shelton, Conn.

“That was typical: 82, in retirement, no cares but the care of the Church. It makes sense, too, about the seminary, because I think he was happiest at ordinations — he loved to ordain men to the priesthood.” 

 

Dealing With Allegations

But the bishop’s accomplishments in Bridgeport were partly overshadowed by dozens of clergy-abuse allegations, which soon prompted charges that Bishop Egan failed to permanently remove priests who had been accused of abuse and allowed some to return to ministry after treatment.

Responding to questions about the number of clergy-abuse allegations filed during Bishop Egan’s tenure, Brian Wallace, the Bridgeport Diocese’s director of communications, cited information from an Associated Press story on the 2004 John Jay Report commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. According to the AP, 23 lawsuits linked to Bridgeport priests were filed in January 1993. But they were not settled until March 8, 2001, soon after then-Bishop Lori succeeded Bishop Egan, who had been appointed the archbishop of New York.

According to Wallace’s summary, culled from news reports, the diocese resolved additional cases in October 2003. An estimated $37.7 million was paid to settle claims by alleged victims.

 

Archbishop of New York

Archbishop Egan took up residence in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in 2000, as Catholics in New York mourned the death of Cardinal John O’Connor, the charismatic national Church leader who sparred with political leaders on abortion and was deeply loved by many of the faithful.

Hardworking but reserved, the new archbishop tackled the systemic budgetary problems of a local Church that was struggling to keep inner-city parishes afloat and parochial schools accessible to the poor. His time in New York overlapped with the 2003 clergy-abuse crisis, and while he addressed allegations and begged forgiveness for the Church’s past failure to remove clerical predators, he was a tough negotiator on settlements, as he had been in Bridgeport.

“When I came here, I told everyone what I would do, and, quite frankly, I did it,” the cardinal told The New York Times in a 2007 interview. “I had to deal with the sex scandal, and I did. I had to realign, and I did. I wanted peace in my diocese, and it’s peaceful.”

George Marlin, co-author of a forthcoming book, The Sons of St. Patrick: A History of the Archbishops of New York, told the Register that Cardinal Egan left the archdiocese in good fiscal shape by the time he retired in 2009.

“When he took over as the archbishop of New York, the structural deficit of the budget of the archdiocese was $20 million a year, and there was $200 million in debt,” said Marlin.

“During his tenure, he eliminated the structural deficit, and he also paid off the $200 million in debt he inherited. During that time, the number of students in Catholic schools grew by 15,000.

Working Behind the Scenes

Cardinal Egan accomplished that feat, at least in part, by reaching out to wealthy Catholics.

“He always said, the Archdiocese of New York is poor, with many parishes that are not self-supporting,” said Marlin, who spoke with Cardinal Egan twice a week in recent months as they completed interviews for the book.

“But New York has rich Catholics, and he sat down with them and raised money for schools.”

Cardinal Egan dramatically increased tuition scholarships and subsidies for schools through programs like the Inner-City Scholarship Fund, which helped elementary schools, and Student Sponsor Partners, which provides tuition assistance and mentors to high-school students.

But he did it behind the scenes.

“He was not a public figure like Cardinal O’Connor. He believed that the archbishop should not be the focal point,” said Marlin.

In a summary of Cardinal Egan's nummerous accomplishments and institutional affiliations up to and beyond his retirement at age 77, the Archdiocese of New York also noted that the number of registered parishioners increased by 204,000 while he led the local church.

Meanwhile, like his predecessor, who spared with self-identified Catholic politicians who supported abortion rights, Cardinal Egan also took a firm line on life issues, refusing to invite Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic Party’s 2004 presidential candidate, to the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation dinner.

9/11 Service

In 2001, the 9/11 terror attacks brought the reserved archbishop into the spotlight, as he met with the families of the dead, visited Ground Zero to minister to emergency workers and celebrated packed Masses at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

During a 2011 interview with the Register, Cardinal Egan recalled that harrowing time.

“On 9/11 we arranged to have a Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. As I returned to prepare for the Mass, I thought we’d have the usual group for a daily Mass — about 500. The cathedral was packed. People were out on the streets.

“I went back to the cathedral for two other Masses on two different days. At one Mass, I said during the homily, ‘I don’t call it Ground Zero. I call it Ground Hero.’”

 

Joan Frawley Desmond is the Register’s senior editor.