5.04.00
Ed Koch on Cardinal O'Connor

5.03.00
Rep. David McIntosh

4.27.00
New York Republican Rep. Peter King

4.27.00
Lazaro Gonzalez Lawyer Rich Sharpstein

4.24.00
Timothy Graham

4.21.00
Nicholas Eberstadt

4.20.00
Grover Joseph Rees

4.19.00
Ruth Charlesworth

4.17.00
Ward Connerly

4.13.00
Gonzalez Attorney Jose Garcia-Pedrosa

4.13.00
Center for a Free Cuba’s Otto Reich

4.11.00
Pulitzer Prize Winner Paul Gigot

4.11.00
Nebraska Attorney General Don Stenberg

4.07.00
Writer Stephanie Gutmann

4.05.00
Hillsdale's Larry Arnn

4.04.00
Barry U.'s Sister Jeanne O’Laughlin

4.03.00
Senator Connie Mack

4.03.00
Yale's John Lott

5/04/00 5:00 p.m.
Ed Koch Says...
"You were in the presence of someone special when you were in the presence of the Cardinal. That’s how I felt, that’s how many people felt."

By Kathryn Jean Lopez, NR associate editor------------lopezk@nationalreview.com

dward I. Koch was mayor of New York City from 1978 to 1989. John Cardinal O’Connor was installed as archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York in 1984.

National Review: I remember not too long ago reading the book you and Cardinal O’Connor co-authored. What was the impetus for that?

Mayor Koch: Yes, His Eminence and Hizzoner. We were having dinner one night at the Cardinal’s residence, and he said "You and I should write a book together." And we did. The book takes on controversial issues. He writes a chapter and I write a chapter on the same issue. I think it was a fascinating book.

NR: What was your original attraction to him?

Koch: If you are the mayor of New York, you must have contact with the Cardinal. The Cardinal of the Catholic Church is the number one religious figure in the city of New York. And we became friends. I liked him immediately, when he first appeared at Saint Patrick’s and delivered his first homily and he at one point said, how’m I doin’? That’s a phrase that I originated when I was a congressman. Everyone knows that is what I’d be asking people wherever I'd go as mayor. There was long laughter; everyone laughed because they recognized that. And he said, "I’m asking the mayor of Scranton" because they thought it was a reference to me. And people roared.

We became fast friends. We shared dinner together about six times a year, half of them at the Cardinal’s residence and half of them at Gracie Mansion. We had a common goal to provide service and help to people who lived in New York City.

NR: How did you work together on policy?

Koch: The Catholic Church is one of the largest providers of services in the city of New York, for which they get paid under contract — to provide homes for abandoned children, battered women, all sorts of services. So, we had a lot to do together.

NR: Obviously, you weren’t the only non-Catholic who worked with him and was a friend of his. What was his ecumenical attraction for so many people?

Koch: The Cardinal conveyed enormous compassion. You were in the presence of someone special when you were in the presence of the Cardinal. That’s how I felt, that’s how many people felt. You knew that you were in the presence of a man who was not only intellectually gifted, but also had extraordinary courage, and was the soul of integrity, and had charismatic characteristics as well. He was special, no question about it.

NR: All the news articles today focus on the fact that he was a staunch foe of abortion, that he was a fervent voice for the Vatican. You think, well, of course.

Koch: Right. Why shouldn’t he be? He is a prince of the church and he is a spokesman for the church. As he put it many times, the Catholic Church is not a salad bar, conveying that you do not pick and choose that which you will do and not do if you want to be an observant Catholic. On the other hand, he was also a man of extraordinary compassion. He recognized that most people are sinners. He forgave and comforted. And you appreciated it and you knew it. I don’t happen to be Catholic, but I understood what he was doing and I admired him.

NR: What would you hope for in his successor? What does New York need in a Catholic archbishop?

Koch: If they can find a clone, that’s what I would like.

NR: You’ve said he was made for New York. Why was he perfect for New York?

Koch: He certainly was made for New York. His personality, his directness, his candor, his charismatic qualities, his sense of humor. To be a New Yorker, you have to be here for perhaps 6 months. You don’t have to be born here. If at the end of 6 months you walk faster, talk faster, and think faster, you are a New Yorker. And he certainly became a New Yorker very quickly.

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