{"id":6704,"date":"2011-08-31T20:43:34","date_gmt":"2011-09-01T00:43:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/deaconsbench\/?p=6704"},"modified":"2016-09-30T17:37:20","modified_gmt":"2016-09-30T21:37:20","slug":"cardinal-egan-remembers-911","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/08\/cardinal-egan-remembers-911\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardinal Egan remembers 9\/11"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The man who was the most visible spiritual leader to New York\u2019s Roman Catholics on September 11, 2001 is sharing his memories of that day<\/strong> <\/a>with the AP:<\/p>\n

Cardinal Edward Egan was eating breakfast when then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani called to say there was a tragedy and the churchman was needed. A police car would soon be outside the chancery to take the leader of New York\u2019s Roman Catholics downtown.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Egan didn\u2019t know exactly what had happened in lower Manhattan that morning as he and his priest-secretary hurtled through the city. He couldn\u2019t decipher the crackle of the police radio and didn\u2019t have access to news. Giuliani first said he was sending Egan to provide support at a makeshift morgue on the city piers, then redirected the cardinal to St. Vincent\u2019s Hospital, so he could tend the injured.<\/p>\n

Within 90 minutes, Egan would be standing in the doorway of St. Vincent\u2019s looking south to Wall Street as the World Trade Center crumbled. He would spend the next several days anointing the dead, distributing rosaries to workers as they searched, mostly in vain, for survivors, and presiding over funerals, sometimes three a day.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor about five or six years, monsignor and I wouldn\u2019t talk to anybody about it,\u201d said Egan, referring to his priest-secretary, Monsignor Gregory Mustaciuolo, who was with him in the days following the attacks. \u201cIt was too much of a horror.\u201d<\/p>\n

Egan had been appointed New York archbishop the year before 9\/11. He succeeded the late Cardinal John O\u2019Connor, a stand-out personality even in a city full of them, who became the most forceful Catholic voice in the national debates of his era.<\/p>\n

Egan had worked as an auxiliary bishop under O\u2019Connor, then as bishop in nearby Bridgeport, Conn. But his tenure as archbishop would be decidedly different. An often stern, 6-foot-4 Latin scholar who was fluent in several languages, he had to focus on internal church issues, taking on the unpopular task of fixing the financial problems his beloved predecessor left behind.<\/p>\n

Still, the cardinal cared deeply about the civic and ceremonial duties that came with the job, the highest-profile religious position in the city.<\/p>\n

Decades earlier, while serving under Chicago Cardinal John Cody, he recalled a moment during the 1968 riots there when he rode in a car with Cody and Mayor Richard J. Daley through the city\u2019s West Side as it burned. Daley and Cody were crying.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw it (9\/11), and thought, \u2018This has now happened to me,'\u201d Egan said. .<\/p>\n

When the cardinal arrived that morning at St. Vincent\u2019s, he donned hospital scrubs, then along with the nuns, he waited.<\/p>\n

He noticed that an intern nearby was trembling and asked what was wrong. The physician said his father worked on the 102nd floor of the north tower, so the cardinal suggested the two go into a side room and talk. The young man declined. \u201cHe said, \u2018I am a doctor. The injured are coming. This is my place,'\u201d Egan recalled. A couple of months later, Egan would recount this story to Pope John Paul II, who would send a check to the young physician to help cover his medical school costs.<\/p>\n

The cardinal next remembers giant dust clouds appearing. People were running by, screaming, trying to stay ahead of the debris. At first, no one in St. Vincent\u2019s knew the source of the mess. The police commander who was with Egan handed him a gas mask.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wore that gas mask for days,\u201d Egan said. \u201cWhen I would get home at night, I would have the rubber marks stuck on me. And I know that in some of the pictures of me in the cathedral, I had those marks.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the rest. <\/a><\/strong><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Given the news<\/a><\/strong> about how New York City\u2019s present mayor is marking this anniversary, I have to wonder: who would Michael Bloomberg have called if he had been mayor then?\u00a0
\n<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The man who was the most visible spiritual leader to New York\u2019s Roman Catholics on September 11, 2001 is sharing his memories of that day with the AP: Cardinal Edward Egan was eating breakfast when then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani called to say there was a tragedy and the churchman was needed. A police car would soon […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[61,192],"class_list":["post-6704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bishops","tag-61","tag-cardinal-edward-egan"],"yoast_head":"\nCardinal Egan remembers 9\/11<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The man who was the most visible spiritual leader to New York's Roman Catholics on September 11, 2001 is sharing his memories of that day with the AP:\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/08\/cardinal-egan-remembers-911\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta 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