USCCB - (Office of Media Relations) - Pope Appoints Bishop Edward M. Egan of Bridgeport as Archbishop of New York

Pope Appoints Bishop Edward M. Egan of Bridgeport as Archbishop of New York

WASHINGTON (May 11, 2000) -- Pope John Paul II has appointed Bishop Edward M. Egan of Bridgeport, Connecticut, as Archbishop of New York. He succeeds Cardinal John J. O'Connor, who died May 3.

Archbishop-designate Egan, 68, has led the Bridgeport diocese since 1988. He was Auxiliary Bishop to Cardinal O'Connor for three years, from 1985 to 1988. He is a native of Chicago and a former official of the Roman Rota, one of the two courts in the Vatican's judicial system.

The announcement was made by Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States.

Archbishop Montalvo said that, until the installation of the new Archbishop, the archdiocese will be under the governance of Most Reverend Robert A. Brucato as Apostolic Administrator. Bishop Brucato has been an Auxiliary Bishop of New York since 1997.

Edward Michael Egan was born April 2, 1932, in Oak Park, Ill. He attended St. Giles parochial school in Oak Park, Quigley Preparatory Seminary in Chicago, and St. Mary of the Lake Seminary in Mundelein, Ill. Following theological studies at the Gregorian University in Rome, where he later received a doctorate in canon law, he was ordained to the priesthood for the Chicago archdiocese, December 15, 1957.

In 1958 he was assigned to the staff of Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago and the following year was named Secretary and Master of Ceremonies to Cardinal Albert Meyer. He was also named Assistant Chancellor.

Archbishop-designate Egan served as assistant chancellor of the Archdiocese of Chicago from 1964 until 1968, when he was appointed Co-chancellor and Secretary for the archdiocesan commissions on Human Relations and Ecumenism. During this period, he was also a member of the Anglican-Roman Catholic Dialogue (ARC), and a participant in many ecumenical and civic commissions, including Vice-Chairman of the Chicago Conference on Religion and Race, founding member of the North American Acacdemy of Ecumenists, and a board member of the Metropolitan Housing and Planning Council.

From 1960 to 1965, Archbishop-designate Egan was Assistant Vice Rector of the North American College in Rome. He also served on the faculty of the North American College, teaching Moral Theology and Canon Law.

In 1972 he was appointed an auditor of the Sacred Roman Rota, which is the ordinary court of appeals for canonical cases appealed to the Vatican, particularly regarding the validity of marriage. He served as a judge of the Tribunal of the Rota from 1973 to 1985.

Archbishop-designate Egan was also a professor of Procedural Law on the law faculty of the Rota, a Consultor to the Sacred Congregation for the Clergy, and a professor of jurisprudence at the Pontifical Gregorian University. In addition to Latin, he speaks Italian, French and Spanish, and has published articles on legal issues in canonical journals.

He was named Auxiliary Bishop of New York on April 4, 1985, and served as Vicar of Education for the New York archdiocese. He was appointed Bishop of Bridgeport on November 8, 1988.

In 1983, Archbishop-designate Egan was a member of the committee of six canonists who reviewed the final draft of the New Code of Canon Law with Pope John Paul II.

The Archdiocese of New York was erected as a diocese April 8, 1808, and created an archdiocese July 19, 1850. It comprises the Boroughs of Manhattan, Bronx, and Richmond of the City of New York, and the Counties of Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster and Westchester in the State of New York. It has a Catholic population of 2,371,355 in a total population of 5,254,300.