[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Pages 1880-1881]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



    AWARDING CONGRESSIONAL MEDAL OF HONOR TO JOHN CARDINAL O'CONNOR

  Mr. SANTORUM. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Banking 
Committee be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 3557 and the 
Senate now proceed to its immediate consideration under the following 
limitations: There be 10 minutes of debate equally divided between 
Senators Santorum and Schumer, and no amendments or motions be in order 
to the bill. Finally, I ask unanimous consent that following the use or 
yielding back of debate time, the bill be read a third time and passed 
and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The clerk will report the bill by title.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (H.R. 3557) to authorize the President to award a 
     gold medal on behalf of the Congress to John Cardinal 
     O'Connor, Archbishop of New York, in recognition of his 
     accomplishments as a priest, a chaplain, and a humanitarian.

  The Senate proceeded to consider the bill.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania.
  Mr. SANTORUM. Mr. President, it is with an enormous amount of pride 
and respect that I rise in support of this bill. Senator Schumer from 
New York spoke on this matter earlier today. I strongly endorse and 
support his words of support for this resolution.
  I stand with a tremendous amount of pride to speak in favor of my 
favorite son. John Cardinal O'Connor is a Philadelphian, someone who 
has left his mark not only on the country but on Pennsylvania, where he 
served as Bishop of Scranton--I see Senator Biden who is a 
Scrantonian--where he served a brief time--less than a year--but with 
distinction and, prior to that gave tremendous service to this country 
as a chaplain in the U.S. Navy, serving during the Korean conflict and 
during Vietnam.
  He was appointed Chief of Chaplains of the Navy with the grade of 
rear admiral and served for over 25 years in the capacity of a chaplain 
in the military.
  From that, he came into civilian life to Scranton, PA, and served 
there for less than a year until he was picked by Pope John Paul II to 
be the Archbishop of the Catholic Diocese of New York, and then shortly 
thereafter was elevated to the rank of cardinal in May of 1985.
  He has served as Cardinal O'Connor in the Diocese of New York and, as 
the leader of the Diocese of New York, also as the titular head of the 
Catholic Church in this country. He has provided tremendous leadership 
on a variety of humanitarian and moral causes, always standing up for 
the weakest among us and shepherding his flock in an extraordinary way 
with great principle, dignity, and character.
  It is sad that as we speak today, Cardinal O'Connor is suffering from 
cancer and is gravely ill. Senator Schumer and I worked very hard to 
make sure this Congressional Gold Medal would be awarded to Cardinal 
O'Connor so he could be aware of it during this very difficult time in 
his life and know that the Senate, the Congress, and certainly all of 
us in Washington extend our best wishes to him and want him to know how 
much we appreciate the tremendous outstanding service he has given to 
the Catholic Church and to the people in the United States of America.
  Mr. President, I reserve the remainder of my time and yield the 
floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Gregg). The Senator from New York.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I will continue the remarks I made 
earlier about Cardinal O'Connor.
  First, I thank Senator Santorum of Pennsylvania, as well as my 
colleague, Senator Moynihan, and his colleague, Senator Specter. The 
four of us have worked hard on this bill.
  As I mentioned earlier, Cardinal O'Connor, of course, has had a 
distinguished career. He has had a distinguished career as a Catholic, 
rising to one of the great positions of the Catholic Church in America.
  He also has had a distinguished career as an American, having served 
for many years in the Armed Forces. He served 20 years in the Armed 
Forces. In 1952, he joined the ranks of the military chaplaincy. During 
the Korean war, he provided spiritual leadership for the Navy and 
Marine Corps. He was Chaplain of the Naval Academy, became Navy Chief 
Chaplain, and left the Armed Forces with the rank of rear admiral.
  I want to say, as someone of the Jewish faith, that the cardinal has 
been particularly effective in moving out to the people of the Jewish 
community and doing a great deal to bridge the gaps--which fortunately 
now are relatively small and minor--between the Catholic community and 
the Jewish

[[Page 1881]]

community. He went out of his way to do this, which I greatly respect.
  He has always been seen doing things for the poor. He has worked hard 
on making working conditions better for people. He cares about the 
plight of the farm workers. He is dedicated to protecting the rights of 
immigrants and, in fact, announced at his Labor Day mass as recently as 
September, his first public appearance after his surgery, a new 
archdiocesan program of aid to immigrants. He reached out to the poor.
  His views on homosexuality are known, but he has spent time 
anonymously working with people with AIDS. I do not agree with his 
views, but I sure respect the fact that, without any fanfare, he has 
been able to do those things.
  Of course, now he is ill, and that is one of the reasons I thank 
every one of my colleagues for moving this bill with alacrity because 
my State of New York and this entire Nation owe a debt of gratitude to 
Cardinal O'Connor. There is no more fitting way than presenting him 
with the gold medal.
  For his compassion, for his strength of argument--which I agreed with 
many times; disagreed with sometimes--for his intelligence, and for his 
commitment to New York and to faith, very few would be more deserving 
of this medal than Cardinal O'Connor.
  I again thank my colleagues. I thank this body for taking the time, 
in the middle of this bill, to honor the cardinal in a very fitting 
way. Our hopes and prayers are for his health, and our thanks are for 
the great job he has done for New York's Catholics, for all New 
Yorkers, and for all Americans.
  With that, I reserve the remainder of my time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania.
  Mr. SANTORUM. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from New York for 
his heartfelt comments.
  I want to relate a small personal story. I had an opportunity, with 
my wife Karen, to meet and talk with the cardinal a few years ago when 
we were in New York. I had never had a chance to meet him, and he was 
someone whom I respected very much and followed his leadership. I had 
wanted the opportunity to meet with him.
  We went by his residence and were hoping for about 5 minutes. An hour 
later, after a wonderful discussion of issues that I was working on and 
that he was interested in, and things he was working on that I was 
interested in, he gave me a tremendous amount of encouragement for work 
in public service.
  He understood the importance of public service in his work as a 
chaplain and, obviously, in his work as the Cardinal of New York. That 
was, indeed, public service, also.
  Senator Schumer mentioned many things he did outside the archdiocese 
and work that reached out into the community. He gave me great 
encouragement to continue to work, to fulfill what Catholic social 
teaching is, to care particularly for the poor and the most vulnerable 
in our society.
  He gave me a lot of inspiration. He gave my wife a lot of 
inspiration. For that I will always remember and always thank him, and 
for the blessing and the prayers that he gave me that night.
  Senator Schumer said--and I said earlier--he is gravely ill right 
now. But I know, as he spends these last few days on Earth, that many 
of us who know him and admire him will long remember him. Certainly, 
the comment, ``Well done, my good and faithful servant,'' will apply to 
John Cardinal O'Connor.
  Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to be able to 
proceed for 1 minute.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, as the Senator from Pennsylvania, I have 
known Cardinal O'Connor for a long time. I am a cosponsor of this bill. 
That is not the reason I stand.
  I stand today to say I hope there is a lesson drawn from what is 
being done here. The primary cosponsor of this amendment is a man from 
New York of a different faith, who disagrees vehemently with the 
cardinal on some very important items that mean a lot to him in terms 
of the rights of homosexuals and the issue of choice. Yet he has come 
forward to acknowledge, along with his friend from Pennsylvania, that 
this man should be recognized for the special features he has possessed 
and the courage and the commitment he has shown.
  I hope we all take a lesson from this. I hope we all understand that 
in every one of us in this country there is a lot of good--those who 
have strong political positions that are diametrically opposed to us--
and yet we are able to see the good as well as the disagreement. I hope 
this is an object lesson for everyone.
  I thank the Senator from New York for having the good grace to 
understand how we should run all of our affairs in this country. You 
can disagree without being disagreeable. You can have strong views and 
still recognize, in this instance, the saintly side of a great man.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the bill (H.R. 3557) 
is read the third time and passed, and the motion to reconsider is laid 
upon the table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nevada.

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