Bishop Egan: Next in line?

By Patrick Markey

As mourners laid Cardinal John O’Connor to rest inside St. Patrick’s Cathedral, it seemed increasingly likely that a Connecticut bishop, Edward Egan, had been selected to replace him as the leader of America’s third-largest archdiocese.

Three news reports indicated that even before the cardinal’s funeral, Egan was preparing to leave Bridgeport for Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue.

The New York Daily News quoted Egan’s brother-in-law as saying that the Connecticut bishop had been advised of his new appointment last week. And two regional newspapers, the Bridgeport-based Connecticut Post and the Stamford Advocate quoted church sources as saying Egan had been selected and had already begun preparations for the move to St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

But on Monday, archdiocese representatives were still tight-lipped on the bishop’s possible appointment.

"Obviously we are not in a position to discuss that matter. It’s a decision that is being made in Rome," said Egan’s spokesman, Tom Drohan.

Despite the secrecy surrounding the church’s decision, the 68-year-old Egan appears well suited to slip into the position left vacant by O’Connor.

A large man, Egan brings with him a strong public presence and a skill in dealing with people, say those who know him. He also worked under O’Connor as an auxiliary bishop for a few years before his appointment as Bridgeport bishop a decade ago.

O’Connor was often seen as Pope John Paul’s right-hand man, an adherent to the church’s conservative doctrine who carried the papal torch in the United States. In more than five decades of religious service, Egan has also adhered tightly to church doctrine. Those who know the bishop say he is actively pro-life and has a conservative approach to church issues.

"I think he would come to New York as a talented administrator who works with people easily, and meets people easily. He’s an outgoing person, what you would call an extrovert, I suppose," said Msgr. Stanley Rousseau, pastor of St. Augustine in Bridgeport.

"In a lot of ways he’s like Cardinal O’Connor in his approach to life and the Church," Rousseau said.

Egan, who has also spent time in Rome, successfully reorganized Catholic schools. When he came to Bridgeport 10 years ago, he faced opposition to a controversial plan to strengthen the area’s Catholic grade schools by merging struggling schools with more successful ones.

"He has a passion for Catholic education; he brings a belief in it and he is willing to do things to make it stronger," said Jim Fitzpatrick, assistant vice president at the Jesuit college Fairfield University.

"He took a lot of criticism for his plan, but it seems to have worked well," Fitzpatrick said.

But Egan’s time in Connecticut has not been without controversy. The bishop has come under fire for his handling of a sexual abuse lawsuit filed against one of his priests.

Born in Oak Park, Ill., in 1932, Egan went on to study at a local seminary and then finished his studies in Rome at the Pontifical North American College in Vatican City.

He returned to the United States in 1958, where he took up the position of assistant chancellor for the archdiocese of Chicago.

Bishop Egan was consecrated in 1985 and later that year took over the position of auxiliary bishop and vicar for education for the archdiocese of New York.

After being appointed by the pope as bishop to the diocese of Bridgeport, he also worked on the region’s elementary schools and promoted priesthood by establishing the Saint John Fisher Seminary Residence for young men.

The selection process for O’Connor’s successor begins in the United States, where a committee of bishops and archbishops selects a short list of candidates for presentation to Rome. A special congregation of bishops in the Vatican then works through its own selection, and the lists are presented to the pope, who has the final decision.

Among other possible candidates to replace O’Connor are Archbishop Edwin O’Brien, who has served in New York and now heads the Military Archdiocese; Bishop Sean O’Malley; Archbishop Justin Rigali; Cardinal Francis Stafford; Archbishop Theodore McCarrick of New Jersey, and Bishop William Murphy, an auxiliary bishop in Boston.