Nat Hentoff (Village Voice columnist) for one — who describes himself as a “Jewish, atheist, civil libertarian, left-wing pro-lifer.” I believe he co-wrote a book (or else wrote a biography of) Cardinal O’Connor, my memory escapes me.

The NY AFL-CIO put out a very laudatory memorial book after his passing.

The rest is wishful thinking on the part of a very few … or that old fallback: prudential judgement.

As far as I know secularist right wingers don’t give a flip one way or another about Cardinal O’Connor. So, proceeding from your cmment you’re talking about Catholic “right wingers.”

So now, answer the question, to what Catholic “left wingers” is O’Connor a beloved hero?

Political categories exist in “Church.” The whole movement to abolish them and accept “orthodoxy” was part of a conservative attempt to hijack discussions in blogland.

One cannot even discussion “social issues” without reference to one’s politics. Mr. McClarey refers to these nearly exclusively as concerns of abortion, same-sex marriage, etc. and I would refer to them by concerns of war and peace.

Politics exists. The categories are less destructive than instructive.

(Oh, and as far as political conservatives and AIDS: The leading presidential choice among religious conservatives was advancing calls to isolate and quarantine AIDS patients a full decade after JP2 and Princess Diana were touching these individuals with bare hands- and right about the time O’Connor was cleaning their bed pans. So yes, political categories matter.)

Really?

Or is this some sort of circular reasoning at work in which if someone works with the poor they can’t be politically conservative because in your scenario, political conservatives don’t care about the poor?

And I’m wondering, Daniel…how many “left-wing” Catholics celebrate the memory of Cardinal O’Connor? Where are the laudatory words at Call to Action, Woman’s Ordination Conference, Voice of the Faithful?

Political categories are so destructive when we speak of church. I wish some of you would get over them, and get over the need to put folks in boxes.

. . . During his years in the Archdiocese of New York, Cardinal O’Connor was active in many areas – from ministering to both the rich and down trodden, to preaching it was important to live your faith in both politics and even on the baseball field. He would donate his Social Security benefits to a black scholarship fund and give blood to the Red Cross and ask others to “give” too. In the quiet of the night, he was known to visit AIDS patients at an archdiocesan hospital and could be found listening to them, cleaning their sores and changing their bedpans.

One of the many reasons why I appreciate him — he walked like he talked. And it speaks highly of his ministry in that manner, given ACT-UP’s mistreatment of him and disruption of his masses at St. Pat’s.

From Rocco (as was the inspiration for Neuhaus’s remembrance):

“…But what many didn’t know is that, when he couldn’t sleep, he would often slip out of the house and go incognito to hospitals or AIDS shelters to minister to the sick and suffering, praying with them or simply cleaning bedpans, quietly, away from the glare of the cameras and the trappings of high office, as if to witness that, just as there can be no love without justice, so there can be no justice without love.”

http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2006_05_01_archive.html