President Clinton and Mrs Hillary Rodham Clinton, Vice-President Al Gore and the Mayor of New York, Mr Rudy Giuliani, were among the mourners at yesterday's funeral for the Archbishop of New York, Cardinal John O'Connor, who died last week after months of battling cancer.
Thousands of New Yorkers braved stifling heat over the weekend to queue outside Saint Patrick's Cathedral for the funeral of Cardinal O'Connor, a popular if often controversial figure among New York's 2.4 million Catholics.
Yesterday afternoon's funeral in Manhattan brought the official mourning to a close in an intricate two-hour ceremony. Among the 3,500 official mourners were church leaders and politicians, the secretary-general of the United Nations, Mr Kofi Annan, and the Republican presidential candidate, Mr George W. Bush, Governor of Texas.
"I think he set a very large role in the life of the church, and even when he was controversial and when he disagreed with me, I liked the fact that he was outspoken and he stood up for what he believed in," Mr Clinton said. As the funeral was invitation only, many New Yorkers knelt and prayed on the cathedral's stone steps before the ceremony as secret service agents prepared inside for the president's arrival.
Cardinal O'Connor's conservative stance on issues such as abortion endeared him to most of his archdiocese, but it also left him open to criticism and attack. He was known as much for his sharp humour during Mass as for chastising city politicians for hypocrisy.
The cardinal took a keen interest in Irish affairs. He regularly met - usually in private - participants in the peace process when they visited New York. His diocesan newspaper, Catholic New York, carried a full-page feature on his 80th birthday headlined "Son of Ireland". Nine months ago, the cardinal had surgery for a brain tumour. He never fully recovered and struggled to make regular appearances at Saint Patrick's Cathedral.
"He was a priest to the core. He was a priest on duty; he was a priest off duty," said one bishop before the ceremony.
The cardinal will be buried in a crypt beneath the cathedral, where he will join 12 other cardinals and archbishops, including Pierre Toussaint, a 19th century Haitian saint.
A bishop from Connecticut, Dr Edward Michael Egan (68) of Bridgeport, is reported to be the leading candidate to replace Cardinal O'Connor.
Cardinal O'Connor was born in Philadelphia on January 15th, 1920, and was ordained in 1945. He began his religious career in his native city, teaching and doing parish work.
From 1952 to 1979, he served as a chaplain with the navy and marine corps, rising to the rank of rear admiral. He was ordained bishop for the US armed forces in 1979, and in 1983 became bishop of Scranton, Pennsylvania. A year later, he was named Archbishop of New York.
