Online Edition – Vol. VI, No. 4: June / July 2000

New Archbishop for New York

At festive ceremonies, New Yorkers greeted their new archbishop, His Excellency Edward Egan, who took possession of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral Sunday, June 18 and was formally installed as the ninth Archbishop of New York at Mass the following day. Archbishop Egan’s predecessor, Cardinal John O’Connor, died May 3.

The installation Mass was attended by eight of the nine US Cardinals, dozens of bishops and seven hundred priests, and was viewed by millions of Catholics on television. Adoremus staffer Jon Soucy attended.

Even before his formal installation, Archbishop Egan signalled his priorities by ordaining several men to the priesthood.

Archbishop Egan was born in Oak Park, Illinois in 1932 and was ordained a priest in 1957. He was vice-chancellor of the archdiocese of Chicago from 1964 to 1968, a judge in the Roman Rota from 1972 to 1985, and auxiliary bishop of New York under O’Connor from May 1985 to November 1988, where he was engaged in oversight of Catholic education and catechetics. He became bishop of Bridgeport, Connecticut in 1988.

Cardinal O’Connor died after a struggle with brain cancer that began last August. During his May 7th funeral, Boston Cardinal Bernard Law’s praise of O’Connor’s forthright pro-life stand caused an extended standing ovation from the congregation, and acute discomfort for some attending politicians.

The New York archdiocese, now the third largest in the country, is regarded as the most visible and influential position in the American Church, due to New York’s position as the media and finance capital of the world.

(Compiled from news stories.)

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