Cardinal John O'Connor
(from the Summer 2000 Quarterly Newsletter)
In Memoriam
Last fall, knowing that he was not long for this world, Cardinal
John O’Connor wrote to President Tom Dillon to thank
him for the prayers of the College community. “It was
the very best medicine I could receive,” he said.
On May 3, 2000, Cardinal O’Connor, 80, died of a brain
tumor. More than 3,500 mourners packed New York’s St.
Patrick’s Cathedral to pay homage to the nation’s
most prominent Catholic prelate. The Cardinal, whose strong
defense of the life issues made him such a focal point of
opposition, was able even in death to command those who had
opposed him to recognize the importance of those issues. Following
Cardinal Bernard Law’s eulogy praising Cardinal O’Connor
for his opposition to abortion, euthanasia, and capital punishment,
a two-minute standing ovation compelled such pro-abortion
stalwarts as President Clinton and wife Hillary, Vice-President
Al Gore, Mayor Rudoph Giuliani, and Governor George Pataki
to rise for the occasion.
Cardinal O’Connor’s friendship with Thomas Aquinas
College dates back more than a dozen years when he first met
founding President, Dr. Ron McArthur, during the latter’s
trip to New York. The Cardinal gave the Commencement Address
at the College in 1989, where he was awarded the St. Thomas
Aquinas Medallion.
His visit to the campus had greatly exceeded his expectations.
Before coming, he had read two of the senior theses and was
amazed at the level of achievement of the students writing
them. He was troubled that he had not known more about the
College previously. But after the visit, as he later said,
he came away “even more astonished by what I saw, by
what I listened to in discussions with students, and in exchanges
with faculty members that I met.” He came away “deeply,
deeply impressed,” and willing to help out the College
however he could.
In 1995, the Cardinal was the College’s keynote speaker
at its 25th Anniversary Dinner at the Regent Beverly Wilshire
Hotel in Los Angeles. He commented that the College was “a
most critically-needed college in the United States”
and thanked all of those who had brought it into existence.
“If everyone reflected the great mind of Thomas Aquinas,
what a culture this would be!” he said.
His appearance at the dinner revealed just how deeply committed
he was to Thomas Aquinas College. Following the celebration
of a Pontifical Mass at St. Patrick’s, he had taken a
direct flight from New York to Los Angeles, where a waiting
car whisked him to the hotel ballroom with the dinner in progress.
He gave the address, mingled briefly with the guests, and
then jumped back in the car and rode back to the airport where
he took a “red-eye” flight home. He was needed to
say the funeral Mass of a friend the following morning. He
could have understandably declined to come to the anniversary
dinner.
Just a year ago, in April, the Cardinal was the guest speaker
at the New York Athletic Club for a dinner honoring local
benefactors. He said that the College “seems to me to
be making an extraordinary contribution to the life of the
Church in the United States. I am not speaking simply of the
multitudinous vocations to the religious life and to the priesthood
that come from there – that’s a marvelous contribution
in itself – but to the intellectual stimulation that
ultimately leads the student to the truth, with great sincerity,
with great intensity. This cannot but one day be indescribably
beneficial to the Church.”
Noting the problems that Catholic colleges face in implementing
Pope John Paul II’s Apostolic Constitution, Ex Corde
Ecclesiae, “I thank God that there is a place like your
College, where Ex Corde Ecclesiae is a foregone conclusion
— that no one has to ask, ‘How do we apply Ex Corde
Ecclesiae to our educational venture?’ – because
the educational venture is already an explication and a reflection
of Ex Corde Ecclesiae.”
When news of the Cardinal’s condition reached the College
Community last Fall, a large spiritual bouquet was assembled
and sent to him. His thanks was profuse: “Thomas Aquinas
is already the preeminent Catholic college in the country.”
As late as February of this year, he reiterated his thanks
to Dr. Tom Dillon who had sent him another Mass card and note
on the occasion of his 80th birthday, just three months before
his death from a brain tumor.
In his remarks at the New York Athletic Club, the Cardinal
said he hoped that there would always be a Thomas Aquinas
College. But he thanked the College with words, that in retrospect,
could fittingly be applied to him: “Your contributions
to the Church and the world are marvelous to behold.”
May John Cardinal O’Connor rest in peace.
-- Qtrly Newsletter, Summer 2000
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