In other comments, some seemingly at odds with the facts, the cardinal said the church had no obligation to report sexual-abuse accusations to the authorities, even though a law on the books since the 1970s dictates otherwise. He also described the Bridgeport diocese’s handling of sexual-abuse cases as “incredibly good,” and contended that throughout his tenure in Bridgeport and New York, “I never had one of these sex-abuse cases.”

During Bishop Egan’s tenure in Bridgeport, from 1988 to 2000, dozens of people came forward with claims of sexual abuse by priests, and many complaints were filed with the authorities during his time in New York.

Victims in abuse cases and their lawyers responded to the cardinal’s comments with disbelief and denunciation, accusing him of opening old wounds. But Archbishop Dolan, soon to become a cardinal himself, declined to comment, except to say that Cardinal Egan had always “responded appropriately and with rigor” to cases of sexual abuse.

In 2007, Cardinal Egan initiated a $177 million restoration and rehabilitation project at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, an edifice whose foundations were laid before the Civil War and whose spires were completed in 1888. The last full-scale renovation took place in the 1940s. Work on the present restoration began in 2012 and is expected to be completed by 2016.

It was also in 2007 that he turned 75 and submitted to the pope his resignation as archbishop, in accordance with church law. It had not been accepted a year later when Pope Benedict visited New York, where the cardinal escorted him to ground zero and helped him celebrate Mass at Yankee Stadium.

But it was accepted in 2009 with the investiture of Archbishop Dolan. Cardinal Egan remained in New York in retirement, occasionally filling in for Cardinal Dolan at official events. Mr. Zwilling, the archdiocese spokesman, said Cardinal Egan was the first archbishop in the 200-year history of the archdiocese to retire; all the others died in office.

In retrospect, admirers said, his finest hour perhaps came in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. As the nation seethed with anger, the cardinal urged levelheaded caution. “I am sure,” he said, “that we will seek justice in this tragedy as citizens of a nation under God, in which hatred and desires for revenge must never have a part.”