Human life O'Connor was a forceful opponent of abortion, human cloning,
capital punishment, human trafficking, and unjust war. • O'Connor in 1996 assailed what he called the "horror of
euthanasia", asking rhetorically, "What makes us think that permitted lawful suicide will not become obligated suicide?" • In 2000, O'Connor called for a "major overhaul" of the punitive
Rockefeller drug laws in New York State, which he believed produced "grave injustices".
US foreign policy • In the 1980s, O'Connor condemned US support for
counterrevolutionary guerrilla forces in
Central America, opposed the U.S.
mining of the waters off Nicaragua, questioned government spending on new weapons systems, and preached caution in regard to American military actions abroad. • In 1999, during the
Kosovo War, O'Connor repeatedly challenged the morality of
NATO's bombing campaign of Yugoslavia, suggesting that it did not meet the Catholic Church's criteria for a
just war. • In 1998. O'Connor insisted that the traditional just war principles must be applied to evaluate the morality of military responses to
unconventional warfare and
terrorism. After a year of stalled negotiations, O'Connor threatened to make a separate agreement with the SEIU 1199 "that gives justice to the workers".
Relations with Jewish community • In 1987,
Nobel Laureate
Elie Wiesel called O'Connor, "a good Christian" and a man "who understands our pain." • O'Connor in 1996 strongly denounced
anti-Semitism, declaring that one "cannot be a faithful Christian and an anti-Semite. They are incompatible, because anti-Semitism is a sin." He wrote an apology to Jewish leaders in New York City for past harm committed by the Catholic Church to the Jewish community. • In 1998, O'Connor criticized the failure of
Swiss banks to compensate Jewish
Holocaust victims whose stolen assets had been deposited in Switzerland during
World War II by German Nazi leaders. He called it "a human rights issue, an issue of the human race." Even when disagreeing with him over political questions, Jewish leaders acknowledged that O'Connor was "a friend, a powerful voice against anti-Semitism". • The
Jewish Council for Public Affairs in 2000 called O'Connor "a true friend and champion of Catholic–Jewish relations, [and] a
humanitarian who used the power of his pulpit to advocate for disadvantaged people throughout the world and in his own community."
Relations with the LGBT community HIV/AIDS In the early 1980s, O'Connor opened a specialized HIV/AIDS medical unit in
St. Clare's Hospital in Manhattan, the first of its kind in the state.
ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) protested in front of St. Patrick's Cathedral in 1987, holding placards such as "Cardinal O'Connor Loves Gay People ... If They Are Dying of AIDS." following up on other HIV/AIDS patients. He visited
Saint Vincent's Catholic Medical Center, where he cleaned the sores and emptied the bedpans of more than 1,100 patients. According to reports, O'Connor was popular with the Saint Vincent's patients, many of whom did not know he was the archbishop, and was supportive of other priests who ministered to gay men and others with HIV/AIDS.
HIV/AIDS researchers and activists initially criticized the commission members as lacking expertise on the disease and as being in disarray. The commission report in 1988 called for anti-bias laws to protect
HIV-positive patients, on-demand treatment for those with
substance abuse problems, and the speeding of HIV/AIDS-related research.
The New York Times praised the commission's "remarkable strides" and its proposed
US$2 billion campaign against HIV/AIDS among drug users.
Hate crimes against LGBTQ O'Connor led the 1990 funeral Mass at St. Joseph's Church in Staten Island for
James Zappalorti, a murdered gay man. O'Connor later endorsed a
statewide hate crime law that included crimes motivated by
sexual orientation, which passed shortly after his own death in 2000.
Job discrimination against LGBTQ O'Connor actively opposed an attempt by the City of New York to outlaw sexual discrimination by its contractors. In 1980, Mayor Ed Koch issued Executive Order 50, which required all city contractors, including religious entities, to provide services on a non-discriminatory basis with respect to race, creed, age, sex, handicap, as well as "sexual orientation or preference". When the city warned
the Salvation Army that its contracts for child care services would be canceled if it failed to comply, the archdiocese threatened to cancel its contracts if given the same warning. O'Connor maintained that the executive order would cause the Catholic Church to appear to condone homosexual activity. Writing in
Catholic New York in January 1985, O'Connor characterized the order as "an exceedingly dangerous precedent [that would] invite unacceptable governmental intrusion into and excessive entanglement with the Church's conducting of its own internal affairs." Drawing the traditional Catholic distinction between homosexual "inclinations" and "behavior", he stated that "we do not believe that homosexual behavior ... should be elevated to a protected category." We do not believe that religious agencies should be required to employ those engaging in or advocating homosexual behavior. We are willing to consider on a case-by-case basis the employment of individuals who have engaged in or may at some future time engage in homosexual behavior. We approach those who have engaged in or may engage in what the Church considers illicit heterosexual behavior the same way. ...We believe, however, that only a religious agency itself can properly determine the requirements of any particular job within that agency, and whether or not a particular individual meets or is reasonably likely to meet such requirements. After a protracted legal battle, the
New York Court of Appeals in 1986 upheld lower court decisions striking down Executive Order 50. O'Connor
opposed city and state legislation guaranteeing LGBTQ civil rights, including legislation prohibiting discrimination based upon
sexual orientation in housing, public accommodations and employment.
St. Patrick's Day parade and LGBTQ participation O'Connor supported the 1993 decision by the
Ancient Order of Hibernians, which operated the
St. Patrick's Day parade in Manhattan, to bar the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization from marching under its own banner. The Hibernians argued that the
First Amendment of the US Constitution protected their decision and that they could not be compelled to admit a group whose beliefs conflicted with theirs. The city subsequently denied the Hibernians a permit for the parade. However, in 1993, a
federal judge in New York held that the city's permit denial was "patently
unconstitutional" because the parade was private, not public, and constituted "a pristine form of speech" as to which the parade sponsor had a
right to control the content and tone. In 1987, O'Connor prohibited
DignityUSA, an organization of LGBTQ Catholics, from holding Masses in parishes in the archdiocese. After eight years of protests by the group, O'Connor started meeting with DignityUSA twice a year.
Condom use for HIV/AIDS prevention O'Connor opposed condom distribution as an HIV/AIDS-prevention measure. He viewed condom use as contravening the Catholic Church's teaching that
contraception is immoral and its use a sin. O'Connor rejected the argument that
condoms distributed to gay men were not contraceptives. O'Connor's response was that using an "evil act" was not justified by good intentions, and that the church should not be seen as
encouraging sinful acts among others (other fertile heterosexual couples who might wrongly interpret his narrow support as license for their own contraception). O'Connor in 1993 stated that
sexual abstinence is a sure way to prevent HIV/AIDs infection. leading to confrontations between the group and O'Connor.
Theodore McCarrick In April 1986, O'Connor strongly endorsed the appointment of
Theodore McCarrick, then bishop of the
Diocese of Metuchen, as archbishop of the
Archdiocese of Newark. However, in 1992 and 1993, O'Connor received several anonymous letters accusing McCarrick of sexually abusing seminarians, which he sent copies of to McCarrick. In 1994, before a papal visit by Pope John Paul II to the United States, the apostolic nuncio to the U.S., Cardinal
Agostino Cacciavillan, became concerned about the pope visiting Newark, as he had heard rumors that McCarrick had engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior in Newark with seminarians. O'Connor conducted an investigation for Cacciavillan and concluded that there were "no impediments" to visiting that city. In October 1996, when two psychiatrists judged that a priest's charge of sexual abuse by McCarrick was credible, O'Connor remained skeptical. That same month, however, he intervened to prevent a priest "too closely identified" with McCarrick from becoming an auxiliary bishop. O'Connor cited "a rather unsettled climate of opinion about certain issues" in Newark. In October 1999, when John Paul II was considering transferring McCarrick to a more important archdiocese, O'Connor wrote a letter to the apostolic nuncio to the U.S. and the
Congregation for Bishops. It summarized the charges against McCarrick, especially his repeatedly arrangement of seminarians and other men to share his bed, and concluded: "I regret that I would have to recommend very strongly against such promotion." According to reports, the pope read the letter. McCarrick learned about O'Connor's letter from contacts in the Curia. In August 2000, several months after O'Connor's death, McCarrick sent a rebuttal to John Paul II, which allegedly convinced the pope to appoint him archbishop of Washington. McCarrick resigned from the
College of Cardinals in 2018, and was
defrocked in 2019. == References ==