Cardinal Edward Egan, 82, the Archbishop of New York from 2000-2009, passed away Thursday

‘Thank God he had a peaceful death, passing away right after lunch today, with the prayers and  sacraments of his loyal priest secretary, Father Douglas Crawford, in his residence at the Chapel of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.  He was rushed to NYU Langone Medical Center where he was pronounced dead at 2:20 pm this afternoon,’ a message from Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan said.

He was a stern defender of Roman Catholic orthodoxy, who presided over the Archdiocese in an era of troubled finances, changing demographics and a priesthood of dwindling, aging ranks shaken by sexual-abuse scandals, the New York Times reported.

Joseph Zwilling, a spokesman for the archdiocese, said the cause was cardiac arrest. Edward Michael Egan was born in Oak Park, Ill., a Chicago suburb, on April 2, 1932, the third of four children of Thomas Egan, a sales manager, and Genevieve Costello Egan, a former teacher. His sister and two brothers have all died.

In 1943, when he was 11, Edward contracted polio, which was epidemic in Chicago. He missed two years at St. Giles, a Catholic school, but still graduated at the top of his class. His family was devoutly Catholic, and he prayed during his illness at an altar set up on his dresser. He also decided early on a priestly vocation.

He graduated in 1951 from Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary in Chicago, earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy at St. Mary of the Lake Seminary in Mundelein, Ill., and then completed four years of theological studies at Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, where he was ordained on Dec. 15, 1957.

Assigned to Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago, he taught conversion classes and was a hospital chaplain. But he soon became private secretary to Cardinal Meyer, who abolished racial segregation in Catholic institutions in Chicago, and was named assistant chancellor of the archdiocese. He was back in Rome from 1960 to 1964, earning a doctorate in canon law at Pontifical Gregorian.

From 1964 to 1971, he was in Chicago. He was Cardinal Cody’s secretary and later co-chancellor of the archdiocese, working on interfaith relations and social concerns. From 1971 to 1985, he returned to Rome, first as a law professor and later as a judge of the Sacred Roman Rota, part of the Vatican’s court system, dealing with marriage annulments and other issues. He was one of six lawyers who reviewed Pope John Paul’s Code of Canon Law, some 1,750 doctrines governing the church, which was promulgated in 1983.

In 1985, he was named auxiliary bishop of New York and vicar of education for the archdiocese under Cardinal O’Connor. The two had a frosty relationship. Bishop Egan drafted curriculum guidelines and won respect for his work on Catholic schools, but ruffled feathers by speaking out on public schools. At a City Council hearing on contraceptives for high school students, he criticized the city’s sex education program and urged lessons in abstinence. “Try decency,” he said. “Try chastity. Try Western civilization.”

In 1988, he was named bishop of Bridgeport, a diocese with a diverse population of 360,000 Catholics, masses in 20 languages and a reach that encompassed blighted urban streets, working-class neighborhoods and affluent suburbs. The diocese was deep in debt, many Catholics had left the poorer parts of the city, and churches and schools were coping with dwindling resources. Over the next 12 years, the bishop closed or merged schools, raised $45 million and stabilized the diocese, the NY Times said.