In 1984, a priest out of Philly arrived on Broadway and took Gotham by storm. John Cardinal O'Connor had a feistiness able to counter Big Apple brazenness with the loving truth of the Gospel. He fought to recapture the authentic identity of Catholic institutions. In 1989, the cardinal collaborated on a book with New York's brash mayor, Ed Koch:
"In New York as elsewhere, the Roman Catholic Church operates a network of institutions and projects, ranging from schools and hospitals to child care agencies and housing rehabilitation. Almost all of these activities involve public funds. In several areas, the city contracts with church agencies to carry out public functions, such as the care and placement of foster children. The Mayor takes the position that if there is a 'youngster who is sexually active, and who will be sexually active no matter what,' then his or her foster care program should encourage the use of birth control.
"The Cardinal, not surprisingly, insists on allowing 'Church-sponsored agencies to administer their programs according to their own principles.' As it happens, Catholic foster care programs now accept youngsters of other religious faiths. Even so, the issue is one of philosophy: contraceptive use by non-Catholics is no less immoral than it is for Catholics. If we pursue the Mayor's plan, the Cardinal adds, we may someday find condoms 'stashed into cereal boxes for little kids to discover as prizes'....
"The Cardinal links the Holocaust with what he sees as murdering the unborn: the one was, and the other is, intentional killing. Moreover, he does not regard his church's intervention in this area as an attempt to impose its will on other citizens. In his reading of natural law, this is a debate with only one valid side.....
"with the advent of the Mayor's Executive Order 50 in 1980, ...private agencies receiving funds from the city could not refuse to hire people because of their 'sexual orientation or affectional preference.' Thus Catholic charitable organizations receiving city funds might have to hire social workers who openly admitted their homosexuality....[The Church] would consider hiring a homosexual social worker 'as long as such an individual was sincerely trying to be chaste.' Needless to say, this is not what the Mayor and other promoters of Executive Order 50 had in mind" (NY Times, 3/26/89).
Cardinal O'Connor did not shy away from confronting prominent Catholic politicians, who were offering dopey statements as to how they could be personally against abortion but publicly support it! For his forthrightness on moral topics, he was often an object of scorn and attack:
"While some 4,500 people demonstrated outside St. Patrick's Cathedral yesterday, several dozen disrupted the Mass at 10:15 A.M. to protest John Cardinal O'Connor's recent statements on abortion, homosexuality and AIDS.
"Some of the protesters chained themselves to pews inside the cathedral, while others shouted or lay in aisles....
"The police said 111 people were arrested, including 43 inside the church....
"Cardinal O'Connor, who has frequently called homosexual acts a sin and has opposed the use of condoms, counseling abstinence instead, told the parishioners during the service, ''Never respond to hatred'....
"He later said that he thought it was 'kind of ironic that I'm accused of not doing enough.' He said he had consistently advocated increased government spending on AIDS care and research. Cardinal O'Connor also said the archdiocese was devoting 10 to 12 percent of its health-care beds to people with AIDS, 'and expanding.'
"The protest was co-sponsored by the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, or Act-Up. The Women's Health Action Mobilization, or Wham!, also joined the protest. A spokeswoman said the group is devoted to securing 'reproductive freedom for all women'....
"About 100 counter-demonstrators gathered to support the Cardinal and to protest what several said was an encroachment on religious freedom.
"Mayor Edward I. Koch, who attended the Mass, criticized the demonstrators, saying 'If you don't like the church, go out and find one you like - or start your own'....
"Protesters said yesterday's action was prompted by what they said was Cardinal O'Connor's growing verbal assault on abortion and on the use of 'safe sex' with condoms as a precaution against AIDS.
"In October, the Cardinal expressed his admiration for Operation Rescue, an anti-abortion group that frequently blocks entrances to abortion clinics. In a speech at the Vatican in November, he re-stated his view that distributing condoms or clean needles was an inappropriate way to combat the spread of the AIDS virus. In a phrase frequently condemned by demonstrators yesterday, he said, 'Good morality is good medicine.'
"The Cardinal has also denounced violence against homosexuals and against people with AIDS" (NY Times, 12/11/89).
Cardinal O'Connor famously resisted allowing groups in the March 17th Parade, under banners advocating practices absolutely inconsistent with Catholic teaching. Yet when I first heard about that, my thoughts went back to those not-yet-house-broken young men of 1980. How could the religious identity of the parade be insisted upon, when such disgraceful behaviors were tolerated? From what I later heard, Cardinal O'Connor quietly got much of that nonsense cleaned up.
"Avowing love and prayers for homosexuals, the Cardinal warned that he 'could never even be perceived as compromising Catholic teaching' by entertaining their admission as an identifiable group in the city's 232d parade up Manhattan's showcase avenue in honor of St. Patrick....
"The faithful listened to the prelate's every word and joined in the hymn 'Glorious St. Patrick.'
"'In the war against sin,' they sang, 'In the fight for the faith/Dear Saint, may thy children resist to the death.'
"The Cardinal's sermon was up to the spirit of that hymn as he ringingly vowed from the pulpit: 'Neither respectability nor political correctness is worth one comma in the Apostles' Creed'....
"Patricia O'Brien, a 30-year-old marcher with St. John's University, talked about life being a vale of tears that does not allow attention to every marcher. 'Everybody's a sinner,' she said as the music played and the rain descended. 'You don't have a banner if you eat too much or drink too much or live in sin with someone. You march with your own county'" (NY Times, 3/18/93).
In Cardinal O'Connor's time, the March 17th Parade could very rightly be called St. Patrick's!
Cardinal Dolan is absolutely a congenial man. Several months ago, I ran into him on a NYC street and asked him to pose with me for a "selfie." He immediately obliged and swung his arm around my back, like we were old pals. He strikes me as a nice, nice man. His announcement about the parade, however, seems incoherent and tantamount to an insult to the memory of Cardinal O'Connor and all struggling to keep some grasp on the truth about marriage/family: http://www.archny.org/news-events/news-press-releases/index.cfm?i=34077
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