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Remembering John Cardinal O'Connor
By Mayor Rudy Giuliani

Last week, New Yorkers lost one of the greatest religious, civic and moral leaders our city has ever known.

We take comfort in knowing that the soul of John Cardinal O'Connor has gone home to God, but that does not lessen our sense of loss. Rather, it heightens our appreciation for the tremendous amount of love and wisdom that he gave our city over these past 16 years. All New Yorkers now realize how blessed we were with his presence.

Cardinal O'Connor gave love unselfishly to everyone he met. He was one of the Lord's great emissaries on earth, and we are fortunate that his walk with God brought him to our city.

As Archbishop, Cardinal O'Connor was a constant source of spiritual strength to New York's Catholics. But his compassion extended far beyond the boundaries of any single faith.

Our city is home to millions of people who worship God in many different ways, but they all recognized Cardinal O'Connor as a man of God.

He was constantly reaching out to all New Yorkers, and indeed, all people who were suffering throughout the world.

He brought a message of compassion and love to inner city streets and corporate boardrooms, to orphans in refugee camps, and to heads of state at the United Nations.

Through the many charities and schools run by the Archdiocese, he was able to help feed and clothe and educate countless New Yorkers.

Through the Archdiocese's hospitals he healed bodies, as well as souls.

Cardinal O'Connor was guided by his faith in God and an internal moral compass that was second to none. In his lifetime, he had risen to a position of tremendous influence, but he always retained a sense of humor and a sense of humility.

He led vast congregations in Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral. He was the most public of religious figures. But he shone just as brightly in private. And some of the most eloquent demonstrations of his faith occurred far out of the public eye - at those times when he would leave the Archbishop's residence to go and take care of patients in hospitals at night -- bathing them, talking to them, helping in any way that he could. Those actions bring to mind the words from the Book of James I:22, which reads, "Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only."

Cardinal O'Connor was also a tremendous supporter of the police officers and firefighters of our city. I remember one specific instance, when a firefighter named Thomas Wylie was fighting for his life in the face of injuries he'd received in the line of duty.

I was with his family in the hospital, and his wife asked me if I could get the Pope to pray for her husband's recovery. I somewhat impulsively agreed, and then realized I had no idea how I could deliver on my promise. And then I thought, "I'll call Cardinal O'Connor."

When I reached out to him, he was on a retreat with other members of the clergy. I explained the situation, and he immediately said that he would contact the Pope. And not only that, he asked what hospital Firefighter Wylie was in. In an hour, he was there, giving the family both the comfort of knowing that the Pope was praying for their husband and father, and the spiritual support of his own presence.

That is just one example of the extraordinary love and commitment that he gave to the people of New York every day.

With characteristic humility, Cardinal O'Connor once said that all that was important for him to know at the end of his life was that he had "served New York as a good priest." He did far more than that. Cardinal John O'Connor will live on in the hearts of New Yorkers forever.