At a time when our world has come together and so desperately needs holiness, humility -and hope - the choice of Edward Cardinal Egan to be Grand Marshal of this year's St. Patrick's Day Parade seems so wise and appropriate. The theme of the 2002 St. Patrick's Day Parade, "Heroes of 9/11," should certainly bring together all New Yorker's, of Irish ancestry or otherwise, as a fitting remembrance of the sacrifices of the police officers, firefighters and emergency workers, along with those they were trying to help and save, in the tragic World Trade Center attacks.

There is nothing that any of us would hesitate to do to honor those who lost their lives," Edward Cardinal Egan intoned, while accepting his selection as Grand Marshal of the Cardinal added: "The St. Patrick's Day Parade achieves a lot for New York. All of New York focuses on it. It is good to celebrate New York in a special way this year. New York has been through a lot and is going through a lot."

He was at first surprised that he was asked to be the Grand Marshal. He has been in his assignment as Archbishop of New York since shortly after the death of his predecessor, John Cardinal O'Connor, on May 3, 2000. Cardinal O'Connor had served as Grand Marshal of the parade in 1995. But he thanked the assembled directors and trustees of the St. Patrick's Day committee, and their unanimous selection of him, when he agreed to serve.

Cardinal Egan will be the celebrant and homilist of a mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral at 8:30 a.m., on Saturday, March 16, before the start of the Great Parade at 11:00 a.m.

Edward M. Egan was born in Oak, Park, Illinois, on April 2, 1932, the third of the four children of Genevieve (Costello) Egan, a homemaker and former school teacher and Thomas Egan, a sales manager.

Cardinal Egan traveled to Ireland about 20 years ago and researched his Irish ancestry while visiting Co. Mayo. His forbears had been in the United States for generations, and his Irish Heritage is thought to derive from Co. Mayo on his father's side and Co. Clare on his mother's side.

In 1943, 11-year old Edward and his older brother Thomas contracted polio, a disease which had become an epidemic in nearby Chicago, Illinois. Edward spent three weeks in the Cook County Contagious Disease Hospital. For six months thereafter he recovered at home.

For three months he was unable to sit up. His devout catholic family had set up an altar on his dresser, and the physiotherapist who visited weekly encouraged him to pray before it daily. Even after his recovery he continued to visit physiotherapists for treatments.

Although both Egan brothers had missed two years of school, when Edward returned to St. Giles, his Oak Park parochial school, his grades placed him at the top of his class. It was there, too, that Monsignor Lawrence Frawley recognized his potential as a theology student, also persuading him to forego a scholarship to Fenwick High, a prestigious area school, in favor of enrolling at Quigley Preparatory School in Chicago.

He had also revealed himself to be a piano prodigy, having a special affinity for practicing on the grand piano in the Egan home. It was felt that he might well have elected for a career as a classical pianist. But he was destined for a religious vocation.

By the time he entered Quigley Preparatory Seminary he continued his high academic standards, showed popularity among his fellow students, led his class academically, was elected student body president, and edited both the student newspaper and yearbook.

After graduation in 1951, he entered the seven-year program of college courses and theological study at St. Mary of the Lake Seminary in Mundelein, Illinois, which included four years of the study of theology at Gregorian University in Rome, Italy.

Ordained a Catholic priest in Rome in 1957, he received a sacred theology licentiate before returning for assignment in the United States. Appointed the ninth curate at Chicago's Holy Name Cathedral, he also taught evening classes for potential Catholic converts, while spending days as patient chaplain at Wesley Memorial Hospital.

His rapid rise to Catholic hierarchy was both measured and meteoric.

He served as secretary to Albert Cardinal Meyer, who abolished racial segregation in all Chicago Catholic institutions, before returning to Rome as the assistant vice rector at the Pontifical North American College in Rome. He taught theology and canonical law, while also acquiring an advanced degree summa cum laude, in his area of specific expertise, canonical law, from Gregorian University.

Back in the United States in 1966, he served as secretary to John Cardinal Cody, a great influence in Cardinal Egan's life, who was deeply concerned and supportive of civil rights and public school desegregation in Chicago. "I saw Cardinal Cody take the heat for good causes," he says, referring to that time as "tough years."

After the 1968 Second Vatican Council, Cardinal Cody appointed Egan as secretary for commissions in the important social obligations of Human Relations and Ecumenism, Egan created guidelines, "The Interdiocesean Program for Ecumenism," the standard for interdenominational Christian fellowship.

His activities from 1969-71, as co-chancellor for the Archdiocese of Chicago, included the establishment of ecumenical commissions and extensions when he appeared before Jewish and Protestant groups. As an expert Canon lawyer he served on one of the two courts as a Sacred Roman Rota Judge on canonical cases involving marriage, and many students of theology quoted his expert decisions.

He became particularly dose to the Holy Father when he was one of six canonists selected to review and rewrite the code of canon law, when Pope John II prepared his final draft for the 1983 Code of Canon Law, a series of 1,742 new doctrines.

In 1985 the Pope assigned him as a rector under Archbishop Martin O'Connor at St. Patrick's Cathedral, and he also served as auxiliary bishop to John Cardinal O'Connor. Assigned to Education, he drafted guidelines for Catholic schools and catechetical activities. Although his priestly career concentrated mainly on being and administrator, lawyer and teacher, he has always welcomed opportunities to work with parish pastors, priests, and lay leaders and volunteers. This opportunity became paramount when, in 1988, he was appointed bishop of the Bridgeport diocese of Fairfield County, Connecticut. That diverse diocese serves some 390,000 parishioners (out of a population of 800,000) at churches offering Masses in almost 20 languages. Since Cardinal Egan speaks Latin, Spanish, Italian, French, and English - with skilled fluency - he was well prepared for that challenge.

He also perceived other needs and necessary changes.

Prominent were the needs of 12 parishes serving Hispanics. As a partial remedy he set up an active exchange program, bringing Spanish priests to Bridgeport from Columbia, South America.

He was forced to close schools and consolidate student groups, due to the rapidly shifting changes in the Catholic school populace. The restructuring of the school system, to account for economic and social change, was a prime concern.

This brought stability to a school system adversely affected by the departure of large groups of catholics from inner city locations. But 33 schools, supported by 88 parishes, ended up, incredibly, with more students than when he came to Bridgeport.

His fund-raising campaign, "Faith in the Future," which elicited "reasonable" donations form struggling parishioners to high-level corporations, (General Electric, IBM, etc.) exceeded the stated goal, $30 million, and raised $45 million for diocesan schools. The diocese's Catholic Charities, with its mental-health, day-care, soup kitchens, and attendant services, became the largest private social service agency in Fairfield County.

After John Cardinal O'Connor's death of brain cancer in May 2000, Edward Egan ultimately became the ninth archbishop in the history of the Archdiocese of New York.

At a press conference in New York on May 11, 2000 he stated that he was humbled and honored. "Edward, he related, get down on your knees and beg the Lord to give you a hand. And don't get up too quickly." He immediately involved himself meaningfully and intelligently in his plans to dose an increasing budget gap in the Archdiocese, and to attract more men to the dwindling ranks of priests, now numbered at about 600 down from 807 in 1981.

His decisive manner has troubled some, but Monsignor William Belford, vicar of Rockland and pastor of St. Catherine's in Blauvelt, N.Y, and who experienced fiscal cuts in the archdiocese's liturgical commission, which he chaired, - states that Cardinal Egan was doing a difficult, thankless job. "This is a time of economic struggle," he told a Rockland Journal-News reporter. "The Cardinal is doing the best he can and will be looking for vindication down the road. I think priests know that his job is awfully hard. God bless the one who's got to do it." And God bless Edward Cardinal Egan, who will proudly and grandly lead all of the marchers, including Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, up Fifth Avenue to honor all of the "Heroes of 9/11."

The heraldic achievement, or cardinal's coat of arms, is composted of a shield, with its charges (symbols), a motto scroll and the external ornaments. The shield, which is the central and most important feature of any heraldic device, is described (blazoned) in 12th century terms, that are archaic to our modern language, and this description is done as if being given by the bearer with the shield being worn on the arm.

By heraldic tradition, the arms of the cardinal-archbishop of a territorial archdiocese, called "Metropolitan," are joined to the arms of his jurisdiction, seen in the left side of the shield. In this case, these are arms of the Archdiocese of New York.

These arms are composed of a silver (white) field on which is displayed a red saltair; a charge that resembles an "X". This heraldic arrangement is known as a "Cross of Saint Patrick," and by its use honor is paid to the titular patron of Saint Patrick's Cathedral, in New York City, the cathedral-church of the Archdiocese. Upon the saltair is a silver (white) mill-sail (a wind mill), which is also seen in the seal of The City, to reflect the Dutch heritage of its founders and the city was originally known as "New Amsterdam." Within the areas of the field created by the saltair are seen four small red crosses, for the Gospels, emblematic of The Church's mission to bring The Good News to those entrusted to its care.

For his personal arms, seen in the right side of the shield, Cardinal Egan has retained the arms that he adopted at the time that he was selected to receive the fullness of Christ Most Holy Priesthood, as he became an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of New York and which he retained during his tenure as Bishop of Bridgeport, in Connecticut.

These arms are composed of a blue field and a gold (yellow) cross, both taken from the arms of His Holiness, Pope John Paul II, during whose tenure Cardinal Egan was ordained to the episcopacy in Rome in 1985. At the center of the cross is seen a silver (white) dove, of the Holy Spirit, and in each arm of the cross is seen a green olive branch. These charges are taken from the arms of His Holiness, Pope Plus XII, during whose tenure Cardinal Egan was ordained to the holy priesthood in Rome in 1957.

For his motto, Cardinal Egan uses the phrase "IN THE HOLINESS OF TRUTH." This phrase is taken from Saint Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians (4:24) which states, "You must put on that new person created according to God, in justice and holiness of truth." By the use of this phrase, Cardinal Egan expresses his profound belief that it is the essential duty of a bishop to teach God's holy people that which they will need to gain salvation, in the holiness of the truth that is Jesus Christ.

The device is completed with the external ornaments which are gold archepiscopal processional cross (having two cross members), which is placed in back of the shield and which extends above and below the shield, and a pontifical hat, called a "gallero," with its fifteen tassels, in five rows, on either side of the shield, all in red. These are the heraldic insignia of a prelate of the rank of cardinal by instruction of The Holy See of March 31, 1969.

Deacon Paul J. Sullivan, President
P SULLIVAN & CO.
Narragansett, Rhode Island, U.S.A.