O’Connor, John Joseph (1920-2000), was appointed a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church by Pope John Paul II in 1985. The pope had named O’Connor archbishop of New York City in 1984. O’Connor received this appointment less than a year after becoming bishop of the diocese (church district) of Scranton, Pennsylvania.
O’Connor was born in Philadelphia on Jan. 15, 1920. He was ordained a priest in 1945. O’Connor taught high school classes for seven years. He then joined the United States Navy and Marine Corps as a chaplain. In 1975, he was appointed Navy chief of chaplains. In 1979, he became an auxiliary (assisting) bishop of the Military Ordinariate, a diocese that serves members of the U.S. armed forces. O’Connor served on a committee of bishops that drafted a pastoral letter condemning the nuclear arms race. The letter was approved by the National (now United States) Conference of Catholic Bishops in 1983. O’Connor died on May 3, 2000.
