Cardinal John O'Connor, Dachau, and the Sisters of Life

A visit to a Nazi concentration camp inspired then Bishop-elect O'Connor to become a pro-life leader, and only much later would his sister discover that their maternal grandmother was Jewish.

I knew the late Cardinal John O'Connor of New York very well during the 1980s, when I worked at Catholic New York, the archdiocesan news paper, and afterward. He had many gifts: the gift of friendship, of courage, of compassion, or leadership, and a zest for life. He put all of these gifts to work on behalf of the pro-life movement. By word and deed, he affirmed the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death, and frequently reached out to those in need who sought his help or touched his heart.

After I left New York, he would help found the Sisters of Life, an order of amazing religious women who help women and families struggling with crisis pregnancies. 

Recently, I learned that Cardinal O'Connor's maternal grandmother was a convert from Judaism and the daughter of a rabbi, and his sister learned this information after the cardinal's death. This month, The New York Times reported 

“The basic fact is, my mother was Jewish,” said Mary O’Connor Ward-Donegan, the cardinal’s 87-year-old sister. Observing the Jewish matrilineal tradition, she added, “That means my two brothers were Jewish, my sister was Jewish and I am Jewish. Of that I am very proud.”

That was a fasinating bit of information  for me, as I often witnessed his close friendships with Jewish people, including New York City mayor Ed Koch. But I was especially struck by this information when I was on the Sisters of Life website, which included the story of the order's origins. 

During a visit to the Dachau Concentration Camp, the then Bishop-elect John J. O’Connor placed his hands inside the red brick crematoria oven and “felt the intermingled ashes of Jew and Christian, rabbi, priest and minister.” Struck to the heart, he proclaimed, “Good God, how could human beings do this to other human beings?” In that instant, he received a life-transforming grace and vowed to do all he could, from that moment forward, to protect and enhance the sacredness of every human life, wherever it was most vulnerable.

It is striking that an Irish Catholic cardinal would be inspired to embrace the pro-life movement, and later establish an order devoted to nurturing the gift of life after a searing experience at a Nazi concentration camp. And only later would his family discover that this same man posssessed a Jewish grandmother. In other circumstances, this woman with German roots might never have survived the camps. 

Those who would like to learn more about Cardinal O'Connor's efforts to establish the Sisters of Life, might enjoy this interview with the Superior General of the order, Mother Agnes Mary Donovan. Mother Agnes states forthrightly: 

“We were not the founders, he was, " she said of Cardinal O'Connor. "We live the vision he was given.”