Bishop Ready For Cardinal Role

Bishop Edward M. Egan said Thursday he's ready to take the helm of the nation's most visible Roman Catholic archdiocese, succeeding the influential Cardinal John O'Connor.

"The archdiocese of New York is an extraordinary community. To be invited to serve this splendid archdiocese as its shepherd is quite humbling," the 68-year-old bishop of Bridgeport, Conn., said at a news conference. "The responsibility has, however, been accepted with great joy."

The appointment, which comes a week after O'Connor's death, was announced Thursday morning at the Vatican by Pope John Paul II.

Egan, head of the Connecticut diocese since 1988 and a former auxiliary bishop in New York, is known as a conservative -- backing the pope's condemnation of abortion, homosexual acts and contraception.

He has also raised controversy in his diocese for his staunch defense of the church in the face of a sexual molestation suit against local priests.

Egan is widely expected to be elevated to cardinal the next time the pope selects new "princes" of the church. The diocese, third-largest in the United States with 2.4 million Roman Catholics, is traditionally headed by a cardinal.

Egan, a Chicago-area native and expert on canon law, is well known at the Holy See after years of work at the Vatican. In Bridgeport, he won a reputation as a deft fund-raiser and a tireless recruiter of new priests.

The appointment brings him back to New York, where he was appointed in 1985 by O'Connor, at the pope's request, to be auxiliary bishop and vicar for education.

Commenting on how he feels about moving from a relatively small diocese to New York, he said: "My first reaction was, 'Edward, get down on your knees and beg the Lord to give you a hand, and don't get up too quickly.'"

His second reaction: "Edward, get up off your knees."

Tall and stately, with a stentorian voice, Egan is a fine speaker who often dispenses with a microphone.

"He will do a wonderful job," retired Auxiliary Bishop Patrick Ahern of New York's Church of St. Thomas More said Thursday morning.

"He's a renaissance man who can cheer at a Cubs game," said Monsignor Timothy Dolan, an American who heads the North American Pontifical College in Rome, where Egan was sent to study a few years after his 1957 ordination to the priesthood.

Dolan said "more similarities come to mind than differences" between Egan and O'Connor, another conservative and able administrator. "He's also an imposing figure and a great preacher. When Ed Egan walks into a room, he doesn't go unnoticed."

Egan was born in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park in 1932 and ordained in the Chicago archdiocese in 1957. He studied theology at Rome's prestigious Gregorian Pontifical University, where he earned a doctorate in canon law.

He served from 1972 to 1985 on the Vatican tribunal that decides important uridical matters, including whether to grant annulments. Once elevated to cardinal, Egan would vote in a conclave for a new pope following the death of a pontiff.

Egan has led the Bridgeport diocese since 1988. In his 12 years there, he gained attention for reorganizing diocesan schools and bringing local men into the priesthood. He was able to raise millions of dollars in his annual bishop's appeal in the diocese, which embraces Fairfield County, one of the richest in the United States.

Egan, however, raised controversy in his defense of the Bridgeport diocese against more than two dozen suits over alleged sexual molestation by local priests during the course of his tenure.

All but one of the cases were from before his time in the post, but the cases raised embarrassing questions over whether abuse was covered up. In a 1997 suit, Egan insisted that the diocese was not responsible for the actions of the priests, who he said work for individual parishes.

"What we know about Bishop Egan is that he is very conservative and takes a very legalistic approach," said Linda Pieczynski, a spokeswoman for Call to Action, a Chicago group seeking church reform. "My understanding is that he is very personable, but also very rigid in his approach to issues."