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Cardinal John J. O'Connor: A Man for All Seasons
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10228 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
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8 / 1986 |
1,485 Words |
| Author
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James J. Thompson, Jr.
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At the beginning of 1984 John J. O'Connor was simply one of scores of Catholic bishops in the United States, and not a particularly prominent one at that; one does not normally look to the diocese of Scranton, Pennsylvania, to produce princes of the church. Then at the end of January the pope startled Vatican-watchers and media pundits by elevating O'Connor to the archbishopric of New York, one of the most prestigious posts in the American church.
O'Connor quickly established himself as a vigorous and commanding figure, but it was not until later in 1984 that he garnered the attention usually accorded rock stars, Hollywood headliners, and extravagantly paid athletes. His embroilment in a controversy with Geraldine Ferraro, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, propelled him into the media spotlight. The archbishop bridled at Ferraro's admission that although she personally deplored abortion, she would do nothing as a public official to prevent it.
O'Connor's quarrel with the candidate brought reporters swarming to the Episcopal mansion at 452 Madison Avenue. Intent upon making him comprehensible to a nation immersed in a presidential campaign, the media typed him a Reaganite. O'Connor politely declined the label. To him the issue was religious, not political. As he remarked in a speech delivered in the midst of the campaign, "As archbishop of New York I have the responsibility of spelling out for our Catholic people with accuracy and clarity what the church officially teaches about all human life, the life of the unborn, and abortion." Some Democrats counted upon the pope to chasten the zealous cleric for tangling the church in a political rumpus. The Vatican did in fact have its eye upon the situation: six months after Ferraro's defeat the pope appointed O'Connor to the college of cardinals.
Having categorized O'Connor as a right-winger, the press had no intention of letting him go. When he chided Governor Mario Cuomo for his Ferraro-like stance on abortion, editorialists clucked disapprovingly. O'Connor's battle with Mayor Edward Koch over homosexual rights further inflamed his critics. The cardinal was culpable on another count, for he had served as chaplain to the Navy and Marine Corps for twenty-seven years before his ordination as bishop in 1979. Even worse, he had published a book in 1968 - A Chaplain Looks at Vietnam - in which he defended LBJ and called the conflict a "just war."
We should have learned by now to resist the temptation to constrain spiritual leaders in the straitjacket of American political terminology. Americans continue to misunderstand Pope John Paul II for this reason. Conservatives grumble that he is a socialist, while their left-wing counterparts dismiss him as a rebarbative reactionary. Cardinal O'Connor, like the pope, refuses easy tags. One appellation is certain, however: he is a shepherded, one who heeds the words Christ addressed to St. Peter: "Feed my lambs." Only with this thought foremost can one begin to understand the man and his mission.
O'Connor's personal motto reads: "There can be no love without justice." Love and justice - together they define what it means to live as a Christian. Not coincidentally, they also characterize the brief ministry that Christ unfolded on this earth. Take abortion, for example. Cardinal O'Connor has been portrayed as a man insensitive to the anguish of women burdened with unwanted pregnancies. Yes, he does demand justice for the
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