Cardinal Egan, Dead At 82

From New York comes the shocking news that Edward Cardinal Egan – the city's ninth archbishop and one of the world's preeminent canonists, whose nine year tenure successfully tackled a host of needed challenges, but saw many of the mega-diocese's most faithful likewise left bruised – died suddenly this afternoon of cardiac arrest.A month shy of his 83rd birthday, according to the archdiocese the Chicago-born cardinal suffered cardiac arrest at his apartment in the city's Kips Bay neighborhood following lunch, and was rushed to the nearby NYU Langone Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 2.20pm.Named to succeed John Cardinal O'Connor within days of the titanic Philadelphian's death in May 2000, on his retirement nine years later, Egan boasted of being the first New York prelate to "get out alive" – that is, the first holder of the chair in St Patrick's Cathedral to leave it to his successor in a manner other than in his casket. (Above, the cardinal is shown on one of the bigger nights of his administration: the 2008 Al Smith Dinner when the event's tradition was maintained with the presence of the presidential nominees at their only joint appearance outside the debates.)While the cardinal's years in office witnessed historic tumult – and sometimes, extraordinary levels of fury from below – on fronts ranging from 9/11 and New York's vaunted finances to clergy sex-abuse, parish closings and relations with his priests, in retirement the classically trained pianist who disdained the media during his tenure came into a new warmth and popularity as he began to open up in unexpected ways and often lent a quiet hand with the yeoman's work of life in the pastoral trenches. And perhaps accordingly, what might be his greatest legacy likewise came to fruition in these last years, when the figure who was only "discovered" in Rome after Egan was forced to return home after the World Trade Center attacks was elected Pope.Cardinal Timothy Dolan has scheduled a 3.30pm press conference in the "nation's church," in whose tiny underground crypt Egan will be laid to rest alongside his predecessors. Funeral arrangements remain to be determined.Developing – more to come.-30-

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