Cardinal John Oconnor
CARDINAL JOHN O’CONNOR
SECULAR JOURNALS From THE NEWS TRIBUNE, Tacoma, WA 3/15/87. “OUR JOHN. John O’Connor: outspoken, but moving on the same wavelength as Pope John Paul. Editor’s Note: Few outside the Roman Catholic Church knew much about John J. O’Connor until he moved from Scranton, PA to New York to take over the nation’s fourth-largest diocese and become a Cardinal. Since that time he has been much in the public eye as an outspoken traditionalist and a churchman on the same wavelength as the Pope.
“To insure that the flock is going his way on traditional Catholic teachings, this shepherd . . .has clashed with Mayor Ed Koch over gay rights, with Gov. Mario Cuomo and Democratic vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro over the duties of a Catholic politician on the abortion issue.
“His willingness to speak the church’s mind, clearly and without the tuttut approach of the cleric more eager to please than proclaim, has made him a favorite with the pope.”
From George Will’s article, THE VATICAN’S HABIT OF RESENTING ISRAEL. “Israel invited O’Connor, and on the eve of his visit, the Vatican ordered him to cancel the appointments he had made to meet with Israeli officials in their Jerusalem offices . . .The main fault here is not with the cardinal but with the political policy of the church of which he is a mere prince.”
CATHOLIC JOURNALS THE WANDERER, 1/5/87, ran an article that exonerated the Vatican from any blame and said the Jewish politicians were endeavoring to use his visit to gain their own ends. They called their publicity of O’Connor’s refusal to meet as was originally scheduled “an acrimonious campaign, first against O’Connor and then against the Pope.” They quoted tabloid headlines that supposedly prove the Vatican’s wrongdoing as charged by the Israelis in what they called the “crudity of the attacks against O’Connor.”
From CATHOLIC NEW YORK, 4/30/87. “Basic Church teachings are in danger of being undermined from within by pseudo-theologians seeking to `change the structure of the Church,’ Cardinal O’Connor told a Sunday Mass congregation at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on April 26, 1987.
“Noting that the Second Vatican Council made many external changes, such as celebrating the Mass in English, the cardinal said there is now `grave concern that coming from within the Church there is restlessness.’ He said that in some Catholic colleges, students are taught, `Jesus, yes. The Church, no.’
“The cardinal returned to that theme later in the day. He said, `Whether it comes from our media or from pseudo-theologians within our ranks, we’re very, very vulnerable and we don’t know it. We think that people understand the teachings of their faith, but they really don’t.'”