c. 2000 Religion News Service

NEW YORK _ Cardinal John J. O’Connor, spiritual leader to 2.4 million Roman Catholics in the New York archdiocese and one of the most influential American religious leaders of the past two decades, died Wednesday (May 3). He was 80.

The bishop died after a yearlong struggle with brain cancer. His funeral has been scheduled for 2 p.m. EDT Monday at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

O’Connor, who for 16 years guided one of the nation’s largest archdioceses, elevated the presence of the New York pulpit with his gift for mass communication and emerged as a forceful voice for American Catholics.

O’Connor’s outspoken views on controversial moral and political issues,especially abortion and homosexuality, made him a formidable figure in New York politics and a lightning rod for protest. But his private works reflected a socially progressive leader who championed organized labor, reached out to New York’s large immigrant population and tended to the poor, the homeless and the sick, including those with AIDS.

Mayor Rudolph Giuliani recently called the cardinal a moral leader for all New York, “a leader for people of all religions and no religion.”

O’Connor had been in failing health since surgery for a brain tumor in August. Since then he often was unable to officiate regularly at Sunday Mass at the cathedral. On March 17, for the first time in 16 years, the cardinal was too weak to greet thousands of marchers and parade watchers from the steps of St. Patrick’s.

But despite his debilitating illness, O’Connor continued to lead Mass until early March, displaying his familiar quick wit and jovial spirit. Personal tributes to the late Mother Teresa and social activist Dorothy Day, both considered for sainthood, were among his final homilies.

The cardinal tendered his resignation to Pope John Paul II in 1995 at the traditional retirement age of 75, but it was never accepted. After turning 80 in January and losing his right to vote in the papal succession in the College of Cardinals, there was widespread speculation that the appointment of O’Connor’s successor would be named in his lifetime, but no word came from the Vatican.

The cardinal made his final visit to the Vatican in February. A longtime personal friend of the pontiff and a staunch Vatican loyalist, O’Connor was known for his passionate defense of church doctrine and enforcement of church discipline.

The Vatican’s chief spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls released a statement Thursday saying Pope John Paul II was “deeply saddened” by O’Connor’s death.

“Cardinal O’Connor was an extraordinary figure in the Catholic Church in the United States,” Navarro-Valls said. “He was a truly faithful shepherd and an outstanding witness to faith and human dignity. He performed his priestly duties in the most passionate manner, always helping those in need. His presence will surely be missed.”

John Paul decided to send Cardinal Angelo Sodano, who ranks No. 2 behind the pontiff, to the funeral, an indication of O’Connor’s importance and the pope’s admiration for him.

O’Connor was showered with awards and special recognition in recent months, including the Congressional Gold Medal, Congress’ highest civilian award. A faculty position in Hebrew Studies at St. Joseph Seminary in Yonkers was named in his honor.

Fostering better relations between Catholics and Jews was one of the cardinal’s priorities. On Yom Kippur in 1999, he sent a letter to Jewish leaders expressing “my own abject sorrow for any member of the Catholic church, high or low, who may have harmed you or your forebears.”

President Clinton also voiced his sadness at the death of O’Connor.

“For more than 50 years, he reached out with uncommon fortitude to minister the needs of American Catholics,” Clinton said in a statement. “His lifelong journey of faith was our nation’s blessing. From his distinguished career as a Navy chaplain, to his determination to give voice to the poor and marginalized in New York and across America, the courage and firm faith he showed in his final illness inspired us all.”

Born Jan. 15, 1920 in Philadelphia, O’Connor attended St. Charles Borromeo Seminary there. He was ordained in 1945 and remained in Philadelphia to teach high school before entering the U.S. Navy in 1952.

He served 27 years as a U.S. Navy chaplain, rising to the rank of rear admiral. O’Connor served as chaplain in the Korean War and was chaplain to the 3rd Marine Division during Vietnam. In 1979 he was appointed Auxiliary Bishop to the Military Vicar, a post he held for four years.

O’Connor received a master’s degree in clinical psychology and a doctorate in political science at Georgetown University.

He had served as bishop of Scranton for nine months when he was appointed Archbishop of New York in 1984, overseeing 413 parishes in three New York City boroughs and seven New York state counties. He was elevated to the rank of cardinal by the pope in 1985.

O’Connor, unlike his reclusive predecessor, Cardinal Terence Cooke, was not content, as he once said, to be a “silent servant of the people,” choosing instead to stand firm as a defender of church traditions.

He once threatened to excommunicate followers who flouted church teachings on abortion, blasted rock music as “a help to the devil” and chastised Major League Baseball for holding games on Good Friday.

During the height of the AIDS epidemic in the late 1980s, O’Connor barred gay Catholics from a Manhattan church where they’d met for eight years and sued the city over gay rights regulations. In response, protesters threw condoms during Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral and chained themselves to pews.

Yet under O’Connor, one Catholic hospital opened an AIDS ward, where the cardinal would sometimes go to wash the hair and empty bedpans of people so sick they didn’t recognize him. Following the 1998 murder of Wyoming college student Matthew Shepard he condemned anti-gay attacks, saying: “There is no room for hatred.”

“He has said that the Catholic church is not a salad bar, you can’t pick and choose what you’ll take,” said former Mayor Ed Koch, who befriended O’Connor despite their political and religious differences. “Slowly those who resented his pointing out their failures in devotion came to understand … the enormous compassion that he had.”

O’Connor won deep respect for supporting labor, refusing to hire replacement workers during a strike at Catholic hospitals and asking Wall Street firms to support unionization for limousine drivers. He once quipped that his “casket (should) have a union label.”

O’Connor led New York’s Roman Catholic bishops last year when they petitioned the governor and legislature to overhaul the state’s stringent drug laws, arguing that drug addicts needed treatment, not incarceration.

After the shooting of an unarmed African immigrant by New York police officers in 1999 heightened tensions between police and minority residents, O’Connor stepped in to mediate talks between the two sides. Among his last projects was the creation of a center to help end exploitation of immigrants.

As the cardinal’s health declined, Texas Gov. George W. Bush sent a letter to him in late February to express regret for not condemning anti-Catholic intolerance during a Republican presidential campaign visit to Bob Jones University in South Carolina.

When asked once by The New York Times what he would like inscribed on his tombstone, he said: “If there’s ever going to be anything on my tombstone, if they just put the word `priest’ _ `John J. O’Connor, Priest’ _ I would be happy for that.”

DEA END WORDEN