Edward Cardinal Egan
Archbishop Emeritus of New York
His Eminence, Edward Cardinal Egan was born on April 2, 1932, in Oak Park, Illinois, the son of Thomas J. and Genevieve Costello Egan.
Cardinal Egan is a member of the Board of Trustees of Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.; the Ave Maria School of Law in Naples, Florida; the Thomas More College in New Hampshire, and the Society of Catholic Social Scientists; and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Catholic Charities of New York; theArchdiocesan Healthcare of New York (ArchCare); the International Dominican Foundation; and Saint Joseph Seminary and Saint John Neumann Seminary Residence and Hall, both in Dunwoodie, New York. He has received honorary degrees from Saint John’s University in New York, Thomas More College in New Hampshire, Western Connecticut State University, Fordham University in New York, Manhattan College in New York, the University of Lublin, the Cardinal Wyszynski University in Warsaw, Iona College in New York, the Ave Maria School of Law in Florida, and the New York Medical College.
On May 11, 2000 Pope John Paul II appointed Bishop Egan Archbishop of New York. He was installed at the Cathedral of Saint Patrick on June 19, 2000 by His Excellency, The Most Reverend Gabriel Montalvo, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States. On June 29th he received the “pallium” of an archbishop in Rome.
On January 21, 2001, Pope John Paul II announced that Cardinal Egan was to be appointed to the College of Cardinals. He was elevated in the Consistory of February 21, 2001 and was assigned as his titular church the Basilica of Saints John and Paul on the Caelian Hill in Rome. In July of 2001, Cardinal Egan was named by Pope John Paul II to serve in September and October of that year as the Moderator of a Synod of Bishops in Rome and on April 19, 2006, participated in the Consistory that elected Pope Benedict XVI.
During Cardinal Egan’s tenure as Archbishop of New York, the number of registered parishioners increased by 204,000, the budget of Catholic Charities more than doubled, enrollment in Catholic elementary and secondary schools grew by 15,400, the Archdiocesan newspaper became the largest in the nation, and the Archdiocese and its various agencies were made debt-free. In 2001, Cardinal Egan opened a new facility for the Saint John Neumann Seminary and Hall in Yonkers, New York. In 2004, he established the John Cardinal O’Connor Residence for retired priests of the Archdiocese in the Riverdale area of the Bronx. In 2006, he inaugurated the “Catholic Channel” on Sirius/XM Satellite Radio, providing Catholic programming twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, throughout the United States and Canada. In 2008, he authorized and funded the construction of a new campus ministry center at New York University in Manhattan. Likewise in 2008, on the occasion of the two-hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Diocese (later, Archdiocese) of New York, Cardinal Egan had the honor of welcoming His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, to New York for a Pastoral Visit that included the celebration of Mass by the Holy Father in Saint Patrick’s Cathedral and Yankee Stadium as well.
In February of 2009, at the age of seventy-seven, Cardinal Egan was retired as Archbishop of New York.
Until his death on March 5, 2015, he resided in the Borough of Manhattan in the City of New York and assisted in the works of the Archdiocese, while serving on a number of offices of the Vatican.