John Joseph O'Connor (January 15, 1920 – May 3, 2000) was an American Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of New York from 1984 until his death in 2000, and was made a cardinal in 1985.

[5][6] During this seven-year period, O'Connor obtained a Master of Arts degree in advanced ethics from Villanova University in Philadelphia and a Master of Arts degree in clinical psychology from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.[7] O'Connor joined the United States Navy Chaplain Corps in 1952 during the Korean War.

[10] O'Connor received a doctorate in political science from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., where he studied under future United Nations ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick.

[5][13] He was consecrated to the episcopate on May 27, 1979, at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome by John Paul himself, with Cardinals Duraisamy Lourdusamy and Eduardo Somalo acting as co-consecrators.

[6][5] O'Connor was elevated to cardinal in the May 25, 1985, consistory, with the titular church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Rome (the traditional one for the Archbishop of New York from 1946 to 2009).

O'Connor had a close relationship with Pope John Paul II, and both leaders were very similar in their emphasis, including a focus on the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death.

When O'Connor reached the retirement age for bishops of 75 years in January 1995, he submitted his resignation to Pope John Paul II as required by canon law.

[19] Attendees at O'Connor's funeral included: The New York Times called O'Connor "a familiar and towering presence, a leader whose views and personality were forcefully injected into the great civic debates of his time, a man who considered himself a conciliator, but who never hesitated to be a combatant", and one of the Catholic Church's "most powerful symbols on moral and political issues.

ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) protested in front of St. Patrick's Cathedral in 1987, holding placards such as "Cardinal O'Connor Loves Gay People ...

According to reports, O'Connor was popular with the Saint Vincent's patients, many of whom did not know he was the archbishop, and was supportive of other priests who ministered to gay men and others with HIV/AIDS.

[47][48] The commission report in 1988 called for anti-bias laws to protect HIV-positive patients, on-demand treatment for those with substance abuse problems, and the speeding of HIV/AIDS-related research.

[50] O'Connor led the 1990 funeral Mass at St. Joseph's Church in Staten Island for James Zappalorti, a murdered gay man.

In 1980, Mayor Ed Koch issued Executive Order 50, which required all city contractors, including religious entities, to provide services on a non-discriminatory basis with respect to race, creed, age, sex, handicap, as well as "sexual orientation or affectational preference".

[55] Writing in Catholic New York in January 1985, O'Connor characterized the order as "an exceedingly dangerous precedent [that would] invite unacceptable governmental intrusion into and excessive entanglement with the Church's conducting of its own internal affairs."

[59] O'Connor supported the 1993 decision by the Ancient Order of Hibernians, which operated the St. Patrick's Day parade in Manhattan, to bar the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization from marching under its own banner.

In April 1986, O'Connor strongly endorsed the appointment of Theodore McCarrick, then bishop of the Diocese of Metuchen, as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Newark.

[73][74] In October 1996, when two psychiatrists judged that a priest's charge of sexual abuse by McCarrick was credible, O'Connor remained skeptical.

[76] In October 1999, when John Paul II was considering transferring McCarrick to a more important archdiocese, O'Connor wrote a letter to the apostolic nuncio to the U.S. and the Congregation for Bishops.

It summarized the charges against McCarrick, especially his repeatedly arrangement of seminarians and other men to share his bed, and concluded: "I regret that I would have to recommend very strongly against such promotion."

[79] In August 2000, several months after O'Connor's death, McCarrick sent a rebuttal to John Paul II, which allegedly convinced the pope to appoint him archbishop of Washington.