Sir, - The universal Catholic Church and the Irish people have suffered a great loss with the death of Cardinal John O'Connor of New York. At this time, when there are so few churchmen prepared to defend traditional Catholic values, his voice will be particularly missed. Along with Cardinal Winning of Glasgow, Archbishop Pell of Melbourne and Archbishop Connell of Dublin, Cardinal O'Connor continuously defended the church's opposition to abortion.
On Christmas Eve 1996, the late Cardinal's love of Ireland was uppermost in his mind when he dedicated his Christmas Mass from St Patrick's Cathedral, New York, to the Irish people. During the Mass, he said that it was the Catholic faith, the faith of our fathers, the faith wherewith so many of our martyrs had suffered and died, that had sustained us through the centuries and had given us the courage to go on through fire and pestilence and sword, through famine, persecution and torture.
The Cardinal finished by asking: "Are there Catholics of Irish blood in political life who let their political ambitions define their moral values or even become their own pope? How distant such Irish secularists are from those poets and patriots who gave their lives, not simply to free their country, but to free what was for them the heart and soul of their country, their Catholic faith." - Yours, etc.,
John O'Halloran, Bantry Road, Dublin 9.