[Magdalen] A little parish in the shadow of the Empire Sta

[Jim Guthrie]

From: Joseph Cirou

>I have a gay friend in New York, and he was always singing the praises of 
>Cardinal O'Connor

Maybe your friend was a veteran of Cardinal Spellman's pied a terre in Brooklyn 
?? <g>.

Seriously, O'Connor and Bishop +Moore were often sparring over issues, 
especially when O'Connor presumed to speak for "All Christians." I remember an 
incident where O'Connor was on video at a hearing that was played during one of 
NYC's TV News programs, and he grabbed a cab and was asking to speak at the 
hearing first off in the afternoon session. He tore O'Connor's presumptiveness 
to shreds, with good humor and charm.

But he was always saying things contradicting O'Connor, and at some point, The 
Post started calling +Moore for reaction to O'Connor, and vice versa. It was 
probably the only time that a TEC Bishop was upfront about defending TEC and its 
differences in the press. Pretty much every other TEC Bishop has dived under the 
bed when confronted with major media. And unlike +Moore (and O'Connor, for that 
matter) who understood the value of a good sound bite, out other bishops when 
forced prattle on in ways that turn out to be unintelligible when preaching the 
Gospel via the media.

>The other things I heard are very favorable especially how he really knew his 
>priests and would be inquiring about the family etc etc etc.

O'Connor also had a literal deathbed conversion on the issue of including 
lesbian and gay folk in a proposed NYC Hate Crimes Law that the Diocese had been 
fighting tooth and nail.

>Compared to his immediate successor he was very well liked.

Many thought of him as something of a schmuck, as they say in NYC <g>.

Cheers,
Jim