The Fordham community mourns the death of Cardinal Edward M. Egan, Archbishop Emeritus of New York , a steadfast friend of the University and one of the community’s guiding moral authorities.

The cardinal, who passed away on March 5, was a frequent guest at Fordham events, where he offered many invocations at the annual Fordham Founder’s Dinners and presided over Masses on both campuses.

He was the recipient of an honorary doctorate of laws in 2001 and a President’s Medal in 2008.

“Cardinal Egan was a true son of the Church,” said Joseph M. McShane, SJ, president of Fordham. “He was the good shepherd to his flock, the elder statesman to his peers, and the steady leader of his archdiocese.”

“He was passionate about education, and about improving the lives of the most disadvantaged New Yorkers. He was a good friend to the Society of Jesus, and held a special place in his heart for Fordham. He combined great expertise with great humility, and he was one of the kindest men I’ve ever known.”

“He will be sorely missed by the Church and the city that he loved, and by all who were fortunate enough to cross his path,” said Father McShane. “I know the Fordham Family joins me in keeping Cardinal Egan in their thoughts and prayers as we mourn his passing and celebrate his life and works.”

Cardinal Egan was born on April 2, 1932, in Oak Park, Illinois. His was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Chicago in 1957 and was consecrated a bishop in 1985. From 1985 to 1988 he served as Auxiliary Bishop and Vicar for Education of the Archdiocese of New York. In 1988, Pope John Paul II appointed him Bishop of the Diocese of Bridgeport. In 2000, he was appointed Archbishop of New York and was made a cardinal in 2001. He retired from the post in May of 2009.

The cardinal was the eighth successor to Fordham’s founder, John Hughes. In 2004, Cardinal Egan rededicated the University Church following extensive renovations and blessed the space, tapping his crozier on the church door. In his homily, he recalled Fordham’s tumultuous beginnings and praised the Jesuits who took charge of the school in 1846, calling their work “the finest in higher education.”

He also bemoaned the nation’s pivot from religion, calling on the University to channel the strength of its founder to overcome challenges facing Catholic institutions of higher education.

“Secularism has become the national religion,” Cardinal Egan said. “Religious concerns are to be kept to oneself…to be made little of to ensure that they do not impede [what society perceives as progress].” Equally troubling, he said, is the skepticism that has become part of the world culture, blurring the certainty of knowing right from wrong. Education that realizes divinity, he said, must have a place in society.

“It’s not easy for Catholic universities to stand square with the teachings taught to us by Jesus Christ,” he said. “There will be ridicule, attempts to marginalize and retaliate, but…if we give in to secularism and skepticism, then we have betrayed our foundation.”

Cardinal Egan thanked Fordham for “being a beacon here on a hill.” He said the Catholic Church “couldn’t be here without you,” citing the hundreds of Fordham graduates who are leaders in education and in the church throughout the world.

The cardinal earned his doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and participated fully in the intellectual life of the church, as well as, occasionally, at the University. In 2001 when he received his honorary degree, he delved into the minutia of the natural law at a colloquium on subject.

Natural law is the intuitive law of reason that gives priority to basic human good, he said. It has been defined and redefined in religious, philosophical and moral contexts throughout history.

The cardinal then went on to chronicle the evolution of natural law from the Roman philosopher Cicero, who in poetic verse called it “a true law which is right, where reason is in harmony with nature,” to contemporary political philosopher John Rawls, who in contrast suggested people “set aside religion, philosophical and moral views when determining if a law is valid.”

Today, varying definitions are still batted around and should be carefully considered so as not to strip natural law of its essence as the nature of reason, he said.

“We can make valid judgments…with pure reason,” he said. “These basic principles are part and parcel of Western civilization and shouldn’t be lost.”

The Mass drew hundreds of mourners to the cathedral, including Cardinal Dulles’ friends and family, as well as fellow Jesuits and other members of the New York and national Catholic communities.

It was the third and final ceremony honoring Cardinal Dulles, who died Dec. 12 at the age of 90. Masses also were held on Dec. 16 and 17 at the University Church on Fordham’s Rose Hill campus in the Bronx, N.Y.

Cardinal Dulles was the first American to become a cardinal who had not first become a bishop. The Laurence J. McGinley Professor of Religion and Society at Fordham since 1988, he was lauded by New York Archbishop Edward Cardinal Egan as a man of academic rigor and devotion.

In his homily, Cardinal Egan recalled a crucifix he saw 50 years ago in Italy that showed a tortured expression on one side of Christ’s face and a triumphant visage on the other side. He called it a potent symbol of earthly life.

Avery Cardinal Dulles, he said, shared similar characteristics; he had numerous triumphs, including a privileged childhood, stunning academic success, 24 books and nearly 800 published papers.

But he also knew pain. His family, which was Presbyterian, expressed disappointment at his conversion to Catholicism. Also, effects of the polio he contracted as a young man returned in later life, confining Cardinal Dulles in his final years to a wheelchair.

His body’s weakened condition prompted doctors to tell him that he would never write again, but Cardinal Dulles “proved them monumentally wrong,” Cardinal Egan said.

“In the life of our lamented cardinal, there was triumph of the most authentic sense,” he continued. “You have the example of a triumphant life story, never matched, to my knowledge, by any other American Catholic.”

Those in attendance included the children of his eldest brother, John W. F. Dulles, and sister-in-law, Eleanor Dulles: Edith Dulles Lawlis and Ellen Coelho and the children of his sister, Lillias Hinshaw: Janet Hinshaw-Thomas and Foster Hinshaw. Likewise, the Mass was celebrated with longtime friends, including John Murphy, who gave the first reading, and his longtime assistant, Anne-Marie Kirmse, O.P., who gave the second reading.

At the end of the Mass, David S. Ciancimino, S.J., provincial of the New York Province of the Society of Jesus, thanked Cardinal Egan for his care of and fraternal affection to Cardinal Dulles. Both men were elevated to cardinal in the same 2001 ceremony.

“It will come as no surprise when I tell you that he cherished your friendship. He was especially touched when you traveled to Rose Hill this past August to celebrate his 90th birthday,” Father Ciancimino said.

He also called Cardinal Dulles a “priest’s priest,” and a theologian whose work was marked by a mastery of church tradition as well as creative fidelity to that tradition.

“Cardinal Dulles was all they said he was—theologian, mentor, counselor. He was, however, foremost, a man of the church,” he said. “To us Jesuits, he was also Avery, our brother—our older, wiser brother.”

Cardinal Dulles began his connection with Fordham in 1951, when he was appointed an instructor in philosophy while a Jesuit scholastic. He left Fordham in 1953 to pursue theological studies in preparation for ordination in 1956. After graduate theological studies in Europe, he undertook an academic and priestly career that spanned five decades and included professorships at Woodstock College, the Catholic University of America and several visiting posts at the world’s top universities and seminaries.

In 1988, when he reached the retirement age of 70 in his post as professor of systematic theology at the Catholic University, he returned to Fordham—35 years after he had left—to accept the McGinley chair.

Cardinal Dulles referred to his years as McGinley Professor as the happiest and most satisfying of his life, pleased with the freedom that the position gave him to teach, to lecture and to assume visiting appointments all over the world.

Educators and religious leaders from around the region resolved to mobilize in support of faith-based schools that have proven they can help at-risk students.

The depletion of faith-based schools in the New York region is a crisis that threatens to rob inner-city children of an important educational alternative, according to members of the New York City Roundtable on Inner-City Children and Faith-Based Schools, which met in Manhattan on Tuesday, Sept. 23.

Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, moderated the meeting to bring a national issue home to New York. All of New York’s schools, at all levels, share an educational mission that transcends the distinction of public vs. private schools, Father McShane said.

“While we may be private schools, we are private schools in the public trust and the public service,” he said.

The forum continued discussions that began in April at the White House Summit on Inner-City Children and Faith-Based Schools, held in Washington, D.C.

Attendees on Tuesday included Edward Cardinal Egan, archbishop of New York, and Rabbi David Zwiebel, vice president for government affairs for Agudath Israel of America, and Archbishop Demetrios, the primate of the Greek Orthodox Church in America. The meeting also drew state legislators and federal representatives.

One of the latter, Karl Zinsmeister, said the government is working to turn around failing public schools. But that will take a while, and inner-city families can’t wait, he said. They need alternatives now, and faith-based schools are a good one.

“This is hard work, to turn around existing schools that are failing our children,” said Zinsmeister, assistant to President George W. Bush for domestic policy and director of the Domestic Policy Council.

The forum produced several short- and long-term actions for helping faith-based schools.

Catherine Hickey, Ph.D., chairwoman of the New York City Religious Schools Committee, said the state must acknowledge its responsibility to make up recent cuts in reimbursement to private schools for performing state-mandated functions.

She also called for tax credits to help parents at faith-based schools, and to encourage corporate and individual donations in support of the schools. She and other speakers said faith-based schools educate children for a low cost compared to their public counterparts.
State Sen. Martin Golden, R-Brooklyn, said tax credits to encourage donations have succeeded in Pennsylvania, adding that rallying thousands of children in the state capital is a good way to get lawmakers’ attention.

“This model is successful in Pennsylvania and other states, and it can work here in New York,” he said.

Assemblyman Michael Benjamin, D-Bronx, proposed a longer-term solution: repealing the so-called Blaine Amendment to the New York state constitution, which restricts public support of faith-based schools.

Cardinal Egan said the successes of faith-based schools get scant media attention, and that they’re needed to offer competition in the educational system while helping counter the downward trend in popular culture.

“What we’re losing is a treasure,” he said. “This is a very, very serious situation. It means we’re not going to have any challenge for a culture that is in real trouble.”

Rabbi Zwiebel said faith-based schools helped establish the Jewish community in America after the Holocaust, when it was an oddity for some students to have living grandparents.

“The Jewish community has been rebuilt on these wonderful shores,” he said.

Faith-based schools outperform other schools in setting and meeting high standards while providing discipline and a safe learning environment, Zinsmeister said. More than 95 percent of faith-based high school students graduate, and nearly all go on to college.

But such schools have been declining since the 1960s. Nearly 1,200 were lost between 2000 and 2006, according to Zinsmeister’s presentation. About half were Catholic schools. Pentecostal, Baptist, Seventh-Day Adventist, Episcopal and Lutheran schools also suffered. Only Jewish and Islamic schools increased.

“This is really heartbreaking. These schools will not be replaced once they disappear,” Zinsmeister said.

The schools have been financially squeezed in recent decades because their parishes have dwindled, he said.

Working-class parishioners with the means to help support the schools have left for the suburbs. Today’s students are more likely to come from low-income families that have trouble paying the tuition. The schools are committed to serving them, but struggle to absorb the cost of keeping tuition down. Also, staffing costs have soared.

“There’s only so much that can be covered by gifts and by church subsidies,” Zinsmeister said. “People do not know what dire straits these schools are in.”

There’s precedent for governments supporting faith-based schools in this country; 150,000 students—mostly at the state and local levels—get publicly funded scholarships for attending faith-based schools.

“There is very much a foothold already existing in this area,” he said.

The United States is unusual among industrialized nations in its restrictions on public support for faith-based schools, he continued. Such support is the norm in France, Denmark and other countries that see the schools as providing a valuable public service. He said private schools advance the public good even though they’re traditionally distinguished from public schools.

“The religious life and the priesthood, both of which I celebrate today as my twofold calling, ought never to be seen in isolation,” Cardinal Dulles said during the homily. “Every vocation in the church, as Paul reminds us in Ephesians, is for the sake of the whole body, so that all God’s people together may attain to the fullness of Christ, each contributing in his or her own way.”

Cardinal Dulles was joined by seven principal concelebrants at the Mass: Edward Cardinal Egan, archbishop of New York; Anthony Cardinal Bevilacqua, former archbishop of Philadelphia; Peter L. Gerety, former archbishop of Newark; Daniel A. Hart, former bishop of Norwich; Frank J. Rodimer, former bishop of Paterson; Josu Iriondo, auxiliary bishop of New York; and Abbot Gabriel Gibbs of St. Benedict Abbey in Still River, Mass.

Cardinal Dulles is the author of more than 750 articles interpreting church doctrine and the papacy. He has published 22 books, including A Testimonial to Grace (Sheed and Ward, 1946, 1996), a memoir of his conversion to Catholicism. He is presently at work on two more books.

The son of former U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, Cardinal Dulles is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Croix de Guerre for his liaison work with the French navy during World War II, the Cardinal Spellman Award for distinguished achievement in theology and 38 honorary doctorates. He is past president of both the Catholic Theological Society of America and the American Theological Society. He will celebrate his 88th birthday on Aug. 24.

Read the related Summer 2001 FORDHAM magazine article: “Avery Dulles, S.J. American Theologian and Cardinal”