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Edward Egan, 73
Archbishop of New York
Edward Michael Egan was born April 2, 1932, in Oak Park, Illinois. He was ordained for the Archdiocese of Chicago in December 1957 and holds a licentiate in theology and a doctorate in canon law from the Gregorian University, Rome.
After serving as a curate, and as secretary to Cardinal Albert Meyer, he was assistant vice rector of the North American College (1960-64). On returning to Chicago he was vice chancellor (1964-68) and co-chancellor for human relations and ecumenism (1968-72). From 1972 to 1985 he was a prelate auditor of the Roman Rota and taught judicial practice at the Studio Rotale and the Gregorian University.
In April 1985 he was appointed auxiliary bishop of New York, receiving episcopal ordination that May 22. He was transferred to the residential see of Bridgeport, Connecticut, in November 1988 and promoted to archbishop of New York in May 2000.
He was elevated to cardinal in February 2001. He was relator general for the 10th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, in October 2001.
Curial membership:
* Family (council)
* Cultural Heritage (commission)
* Apostolic Signature (tribunal)
* Economic Affairs of the Holy See (office)
* Council of Cardinals for the Study of Organizational and Economic Affairs of the Holy See
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Péter Erdõ, 52
Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest and primate of Hungary
Péter Erdõ was born June 25, 1952, in Budapest, Hungary. He was ordained a priest in June 1975 and holds doctorates in theology and canon law.
He was a professor of theology in the Faculty of Theology of the Archdiocese of Esztergom and at the Gregorian University. He was rector of Rome’s Hungarian Pontifical Institute.
He served as professor, department head, dean and rector of the Theological Academy Péter Pázmány, and was principal of the Postgraduate Institute of Canon Law. He also taught at the Pontifical Catholic University Argentina, in Buenos Aires, and at the Lateran University.
In January 2000 he was ordained as an auxiliary bishop of Szekesfehervar. He is now president of the Commission of Ecclesiastical Law of the bishops’ conference of Hungary.
In December 2002 he was named archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest and primate of Hungary. He was elevated to cardinal in October 2003.
Curial membership:
* Catholic Education (congregation)
* Legislative Texts (council)
* Apostolic Signature (tribunal)
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Francisco Javier Errázuriz Ossa, 71
Archbishop of Santiago, Chile
Francisco Javier Errázuriz Ossa was born Sept. 5, 1933, in Santiago. He was ordained for the Schönstatt Fathers in July 1961 and holds a licentiate in theology from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland.
He was a chaplain to students and professionals of the Schönstatt Movement and served as regional superior in Chile. In 1971 he was called to Germany as a member of his community’s General Council and in 1974 was elected superior general.
In December 1990 he was appointed secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, receiving episcopal ordination on Jan. 6, 1991. In September 1996 he was named archbishop of Valparaiso and was transferred to the Archdiocese of Santiago in April 1998.
He is president of the episcopal conference of Chile. In May 2003 he was elected president of the Latin American bishops’ council (CELAM). He was elevated to cardinal in February 2001.
Curial membership:
* Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (congregation)
* Family, Culture (councils)
* Latin America (commission)
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Frédéric Etsou-Nzabi-Bamungwabi, 74
Archbishop of Kinshasa, Congo
Frédéric Etsou-Nzabi-Bamungwabi was born Dec. 3, 1930, at Mazalonga, Lisala, in then Zaire. After having studied in the minor seminary of Bolongo, he continued at the major seminary of Kabwe in Western Kasai, where he completed the first cycle of philosophy (1949-1953) and a year of theology (1953-1954).
He entered the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and completed the novitiate at Katoka, Western Kasai, before completing the first cycle of theology in 1958.
Ordained a priest in July 1958, Frédéric Etsou was then named vicar in two parishes of Kinshasa.
He was sent to Europe to study for a doctorate in sociology at the Catholic Institute of Paris, and in pastoral theology at the Lumen Vitae in Brussels, Belgium. He also studied science and letters at the Institute of Higher Studies d’Oltremare in Paris, France.
In 1968, he returned to Kinshasa where he was named dean in a parish and at the same time vice provincial of his congregation.
In July 1976 he was named coadjutor archbishop of Mbandaka and received episcopal ordination on Nov. 7, 1976. In November 1977 he became resident archbishop of Mbandaka-Bikoro. In July 1990, he was named archbishop of Kinshasa.
He was elevated to cardinal in June 1991. Since July 2000, he has been president of the Congolese bishops’ conference.
Curial membership:
* Evangelization of Peoples (congregation)
* Family, Culture (councils)
* Council of Cardinals for Study of Organizational and Economic Affairs of the Holy See
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José Freire Falcão, 79
Retired archbishop of Brasilia, Brazil
José Freire Falcão was born Oct. 23, 1925, at Erere, Diocese of Limoeiro do Norte. In 1938 he entered the seminary of Prainha at Fortaleaz, where he did his higher studies, as well as philosophy and theology.
In June 1949 he was ordained a priest at Limoeiro do Norte. Immediately after he began his ministry as vicar of the cathedral. He was also vice director of the diocesan secondary school, professor at the minor seminary and in other schools, as well as the chaplain to Catholic Action.
In April 1967 he was named coadjutor bishop of Limoeiro do Norte, with the right of succession. He received episcopal ordination June 17, 1967, and two months later, on Aug. 19, he assumed the pastoral governance of the diocese. In November 1971 he was named archbishop of Teresina. In February 1984 he went to the Diocese of Brasilia.
He was a vice president of the Latin American bishops’ council. He was elevated to cardinal in June 1988. He retired as archbishop of Brasilia in January 2004.
Curial membership:
* Health Care Workers (council)
* Council of Cardinals for Study of Organizational and Economic Affairs of the Holy See
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Francis George, 68
Archbishop of Chicago
Francis Eugene George was born in Chicago on Jan. 16, 1937. After attending the St. Henry minor seminary, in Illinois, he entered the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate in August 1957.
He studied theology at the University of Ottawa in Canada and was ordained priest in December 1963.
He pursued undergraduate studies in philosophy at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and then doctoral studies in philosophy at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. In these years, he also taught philosophy at the Seminary of the Oblates in Pass Christian, Mississippi (1964-69), at Tulane (1968), and at Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska (1969-73).
From 1973 to 1974 he was provincial superior of the Midwestern Province of the Oblates at St. Paul, Minnesota. He was then elected vicar general of the Oblates and worked in Rome from 1974 to 1986.
He returned to the United States and became coordinator of the Circle of Fellows of the Cambridge Center for the Study of Faith and Culture in Cambridge, Massachusetts (1987-90).
At that time he pursued doctoral studies in theology at the Urbanian University in Rome, with a specialization in ecclesiology (1988).
Pope John P
aul II named him bishop of Yakima in Washington state in July 1990. He was ordained to the episcopate that Sept. 21 and installed as bishop of Yakima on the same day.
In April 1996 he was named archbishop of Portland, Oregon. He took possession of the see a month later. In April 1997 he was named archbishop of Chicago.
He was appointed by the Pope to the Synod of Bishops on Consecrated Life in 1994, and as delegate and special secretary to the American Synod in 1997.
He has been a consultor for the U.S. bishops’ conference on the following commissions: Science and Human Values (1994-97), Hispanic Affairs (1994-97), Evangelization (1991-93). He was also president of the episcopal Commission for Bishops and Scholars (1992-94).
He is the representative of the U.S. bishop’s conference on the International Commission for English in the Liturgy. He is also a member of the Pontifical Foundation (since 1997) and of the Council of Administration of the Pope John XXIII Center, Boston, Massachusetts (since 1994).
He was elevated to cardinal in February 1998.
Curial membership:
* Divine Worship and the Sacraments, Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, Evangelization of Peoples, Eastern Churches (congregations)
* Cor Unum, Culture (councils)
* Cultural Heritage (commission)
* Vox Clara (committee)
* Ordinary Council of the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops
* Special Council for America of the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops
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Michele Giordano, 74
Archbishop of Naples, Italy
Michele Giordano was born Sept. 26, 1930, in Sant’Arcangelo, Italy. He studied at the regional seminary of Potenza and then also at Salerno. In the interregional seminary of Posillipo he completed a licentiate in theology. In July 1953 he was ordained a priest and immediately became the pastor of Scanzano.
In 1959 he was appointed director of the Catechetics Center and the Diocesan Center of Social Studies. At the same time he was also the diocesan chaplain to Catholic Action.
In 1968, he was appointed vicar general of the diocese, until December 1971, when he was appointed auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Matera and apostolic administrator of Irsina, Gravina and Altamura.
In June 1974 he was appointed archbishop of Matera and Irsina. One of his first initiatives was to reopen the diocesan seminary, closed for 60 years.
In May 1987 he was named to the metropolitan Church of Naples, and took possession on June 27, 1987. In September 1987 the 24 bishops of Campania elected him president of their episcopal conference. He was elevated to cardinal in June 1988.
Curial membership:
* Clergy (congregation)
* Health Care Workers (council)
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Józef Glemp, 75
Archbishop of Warsaw and primate of Poland
Józef Glemp was born Dec. 18, 1929, at Inowroclaw, Poland, the son of a salt miner. During the Nazi occupation he was forced to work in the country on a German farm.
In July 1950 he entered the archdiocesan seminary of Gniezno, where in May 1956 he was ordained a priest.
After two years of pastoral service, in 1958 he was sent to Rome to study canon law at the Lateran University, earning his doctorate.
After his practicum he was given the title of advocate of the Roman Rota. In 1964, he returned to Gniezno in Poland. He became chaplain of the Dominican and Franciscan Sisters and teacher of religion in the house for delinquent minors. He worked as secretary of the seminary of Gniezno and as notary for the curia and the metropolitan tribunal and also as defender of the bond.
In December 1967, he worked in the secretariat of the primate, and for 15 years was one of Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski’s close aides.
In March 1979, Pope John Paul II named him bishop of Warmia. After the death of Cardinal Wyszynski in May 1981, he was named archbishop of Gniezno in July 1981, in union with the archdiocese of Warsaw. As bishop of Gniezno he became also the primate of Poland. He was elevated to cardinal in February 1983.
In March 1992, with the restructuring of the Church dioceses in Poland, John Paul II dissolved the union «ad personam» of Gniezno-Warsaw, naming as metropolitan archbishop of Gniezno Bishop Henryk Muszynski.
The Holy Father decided that the title of primate of Poland should remain linked to the historical heritage of St. Adalberto in the Archdiocese of Gniezno and confirmed that Cardinal Józef Glemp, archbishop of Warsaw, who had custody of the relics of St. Adalberto, should continue to bear the title of primate of Poland.
Cardinal Glemp acted as president of the bishops’ conference of Poland for 23 years, from 1981 until March 2004.
He was president delegate to the 1st Special Assembly for Europe of the Synod of Bishops, in 1991.
Curial membership:
* Eastern Churches (congregation)
* Culture (council)
* Apostolic Signature (tribunal)
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Zenon Grocholewski, 65
Prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education
Zenon Grocholewski was born Oct. 11, 1939, in Brodki, Poland. He was ordained for the Archdiocese of Poznan in May 1963. He worked for three years at a parish in Poznan before earning a doctorate in canon law at the Gregorian University, Rome.
From 1972 to 1999 he worked at the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signature as notary, chancellor, secretary and prefect.
During this time he was one of the seven members of the commission that studied the draft of the 1983 Code of Canon Law with the Pope, and he taught canon law at the Gregorian and Lateran universities and the Studio Rotale. He was appointed titular bishop of Agropoli in December 1982 and promoted to archbishop in December 1991.
In November 1999 he was appointed prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education. He is currently the grand chancellor of the Gregorian University. He was elevated to cardinal in February 2001.
Curial membership:
* Doctrine of the Faith, Bishops (congregations)
* Legislative Texts (council)
* Special Council for Oceania of the Secretariat General (Synod of Bishops)
