Cardinal Egan hospitalized as Holy Week begins

New York City, N.Y., Apr 7, 2009 / 07:52 am

New York’s Archbishop, Cardinal Edward E. Egan, was hospitalized on Saturday with stomach pains, causing his surgeon to postpone an operation to install a pacemaker at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Manhattan.

Egan, 77, began to experience stomach pains on Saturday night and was promptly driven to St. Vincent’s to undergo testing.

The pacemaker, which according to the Archdiocese of New York was supposed to be implanted today, will be rescheduled until the Cardinal regains some strength. The pacemaker operation is not deemed to be “an emergency.”

The medical emergency means that Cardinal Egan's participation in Holy Week celebrations is still up in the air.

The Archdiocese reported earlier on Sunday that Egan was “awake and alert and his stomach pains [had] decreased.” He also was able to express “his disappointment at not being able to celebrate Palm Sunday Mass at the Cathedral of Saint Patrick.”

The New York Times reported that Cardinal Egan was seen with a cane last week, and upon being asked why, he said “his doctors had diagnosed [him with] post-polio syndrome.” According to his biography, Egan contracted polio at the age of 11.

Egan will retire as Archbishop on April 15, 2009 when Archbishop Timothy Dolan is installed as the new Archbishop of New York. The Cardinal has led the Archdiocese since June 2000.