New York lost a good priest this week when the Lord called Edward Cardinal Egan home.
Back when Egan was first appointed archbishop of New York, some dismissed him because much of his charge was to stop the red ink that had flowed so freely under his predecessor, John Cardinal O’Connor.
O’Connor had a big heart, and his spending reflected it, but someone always has the job of making hard decisions, reconciling competing needs with limited finances. That someone was Cardinal Egan.
When New York needed a pastor, Egan was there. On 9/11, he put on scrubs at St. Vincent’s Hospital and ministered to the wounded.
He spent the next days walking Ground Zero, handing out rosaries and encouraging those recovering the dead. Then came the funerals, hundreds of them, each one of them uniquely heartwrenching.
In an interview with the National Catholic Register on the 10th anniversary of the attacks, Cardinal Egan characteristically put the focus on others:
“New York and the world saw examples of self-sacrifice that I don’t think have ever been matched in our time,” he told the paper.
“People worked around the clock, with dust and sand from above or below. No one was thinking about themselves. Police officers, firefighters, emergency workers poured themselves out for others. You couldn’t help but be inspired by that. We saw heroism and self-sacrifice — expressions of great holiness.”
And when these people lifted their eyes from their work, it was no small thing to see their shepherd standing with them.
Edward Cardinal Egan, RIP.