5.05.00
O'Connor's Kindness, and His Faith

5.03.00
The Case for Hearings

4.24.00
A Loving Father?

4.20.00
Court Overrules Rule of Reno

4.18.00
Elián Among the Psychiatrists

4.12.00
Gen. Kennedy's Anita Hill Problem

4.10.00
Let's Make A Deal

4.07.00
The Elián Precedent

4.06.00
A Scandalous Flip-Flop

n today's New York Post, Geraldine Ferraro fondly recalls her relationship with John Cardinal O'Connor and concludes that he was "a very contradictory person." It seems that the Cardinal would call to comfort her when she faced family problems, but he also criticized her abortion- rights stand in 1984, and prevented her from speaking at her Catholic alma mater's 50th-anniversary celebration. Mrs. Ferraro explains that many people don't appreciate the Cardinal's compassionate, caring side she witnessed, because they only "saw him yelling about issues that he cared about." The Cardinal's fellow Catholic is apparently incapable of understanding that he so passionately loved others owing to his strong, orthodox faith. He loved others as Christ so loved his Church, to the point of offering his life on their behalf. Thus, his intimate care of AIDS patients, his advocacy for the homeless, and his compassion for the unborn — and his personal kindnesses toward Geraldine Ferraro.

Mrs. Ferraro has plenty of company in her assessment of Cardinal O'Connor in conventional political terms. The media's commentary also marveled at the Cardinal's alleged contradictions. The typical analysis resembled the puzzlement that could be expected if Newt Gingrich were found prowling Washington, delivering warm bowls of milk to starving kittens. The New York Times editorialized that the Cardinal "balanced" his traditional Catholic beliefs on abortion, homosexuality, and the ordination of women with a concern for those in need, "even when the needy were at odds with his strong Catholic message." Huh? Can the editorial board really think that a handful of hot-button social issues sums up the faith of 60 million American Catholics, to the exclusion of, say, the Beatitudes?

The Washington Post's religion reporter declared Cardinal O'Connor the country's "most provocative" Catholic leader, and got both his city, and his faith, wrong. Hanna Rosin mislabeled New York as "a city known for its tolerance" (in fact, its natives don't like people from New Jersey), in order to point out a foolish anomaly with the Cardinal's traditional (read intolerant) views on the same hot-button issues that define Catholics at the New York Times.

We know what one loyal son of the Church who has gone on to his eternal reward would say about the revealed gulf between the secular elites and people of faith: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

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