U.S.

Conn. Bishop Top O'Connor Successor

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

May 3, 2000 / 6:01 PM EDT / CBS

Now that New York Cardinal John O'Connor has been laid to rest, attention is focusing on Bishop Edward Egan, the likely successor to serve the archdiocese's 2.4 million Catholics and be the Vatican's point man in the world's most powerful nation.

Cardinal O'Connor's life was celebrated at a funeral Mass on Monday marked by pageantry, prayer and an outpouring of love.

A massive funeral procession of 800, including priests, 120 bishops, 15 cardinals and Bishop Egan of Bridgeport, Conn., wound its way through the great bronze doors of St. Patrick's Cathedral, where an estimated 3,500 invited mourners had gathered.

Egan's experience at the Vatican and as a church official in New York appeared to make him a likely candidate as the new archbishop. He will have to walk a spiritual tightrope, balancing traditional teachings with contemporary challenges if he takes over America's most prominent Roman Catholic pulpit.

"He'll do a good job," said Bishop Patrick Ahern, a former aide to O'Connor who knows Egan. "He's a strong man, a smart man. He's very able. He's from the Chicago area, so he's already a big-city fellow."

Bishop Egan Bio

Egan, who was born in Oak Park, Ill., just outside Chicago, is head of the Bridgeport, Conn., diocese with 367,000 Catholics in 88 parishes. He is credited with regionalizing the Catholic school system and establishing the diocese's Inner City Foundation.

He served in Rome for 18 years and was an auxiliary bishop in New York, chosen by O'Connor to oversee the archdiocese's education programs.

There is no timetable for the pope to name a successor. The process begins with recommendations in the U.S., then goes to a committee in the Vatican. The pope can follow the panel's recommendation or reject the candidate and call forth another.

Cardinal O'Connor's unwavering position on social issues rang out from the altar of St. Patrick's Cathedral Monday, a sign his influence would long outlast his eulogy.

"What a great legacy he has left us in his constant reminder that the church must always be unambiguously pro-life," Cardinal Bernard Law said during Monday's funeral Mass.

The remark sparked 75 seconds of applause, then a standing ovation that spread from the back of the cathedral to the front, where President Clinton, Senate seat rivals Hillary Rodham Clinton and Mayor Rudolph Giuliai, and other politicians were seated.

Many of the political heavyweights favor abortion rights. They were the last to get to their feet and looked a little reluctant, but they eventually stood, some without applauding.

Across the street from the cathedral, hundreds of people weathered sweltering heat to listen to the service over loudspeakers. A Red Cross truck nearby passed out water.

CBS News Correspondent Bobbi Harley reports O'Connor touched many with his prayers and kindness during 16 years as the most prominent Catholic leader in this nation. But, he also was remembered as a staunch defender of his church's conservative teachings.

Other dignitaries who attended included Vice President Al Gore, former President George Bush, Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

O'Connor's closed coffin, covered in a white linen cloth, sat in the center aisle at the front of the majestic church. On top lay the cardinal's personal crucifix and a book of the Gospel.

In a gentle demonstration of devotion, hundreds of the priests who filed past the cardinal's coffin touched it lightly. "It's a kind of blessing," said archdiocesan spokesman the Rev. Paul Keenan.

Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican's secretary of state, carried O'Connor's staff in the procession. He also presided at the ceremony, which according to Catholic guidelines focuses on celebrating O'Connor's new life in heaven.

Obituary

Cardinal John O'Connor was the outspoken leader of America's largest Catholic diocese. Click here for more on his life.

Sodano offered the service "as a sacrifice of praise to almighty God who has given us in the person of the Archbishop of New York such a generous and faithful pastor." He called O'Connor a great churchman whose name would be forever etched in the annals of the Church.

"Our hearts are heavy with sorry at his passing," Sodano said but urged those gathered to recall a prayer that says: "Lord, we do not complain because you have taken him from us but rather we will thank you for having given him to us."

The first reading from the Bible's Old Testament was offered by Mother Agnes Donovan, head of the Bronx-based Sisters of Life, an order of nuns founded by O'Conno12 years ago.

O'Connor, 80, died Wednesday of brain cancer. After the service, O'Connor's casket was taken down a narrow staircase to a crypt beneath St. Patrick's altar, where all previous archbishops of New York are buried.

His coffin will was placed near that of Pierre Toussaint, a 19th-century Haitian whose cause for sainthood was supported by O'Connor. That portion of the ceremony was private, with only O'Connor's relatives and a small group of church officials present.