Cardinal Answers Questions On-Line

Cardinal John O’Connor has had his own television show. He writes a weekly column for the archdiocesan paper. And now, he’s spreading his message in a new realm: cyberspace.

In what was billed as a first-ofits-kind event for a Catholic cardinal, O’Connor answered questions for about 45 minutes recently on an on-line computer information service, Prodigy. Responding to subscribers’ queries, he touched on subjects ranging from AIDS to the pope to abortion.

“I feel as though I am on ‘Star Trek,”’ the 74-year-old head of the New York Roman Catholic Archdiocese said at one point.

But he predicted that on-line services like Prodigy will have a broad impact and that “it’s certainly a way to reach people who never come to church.”

A man who identified himself as a homosexual with AIDS, and a devout Catholic, said he felt persecuted by the church.

O’Connor said he regretted if the man felt persecuted but added, “I believe the church teaches what Christ taught. If I tried to change that teaching, I would be lacking integrity.”

He told the man to call him.

When asked about the recent killings at two Massachusetts abortion clinics, O’Connor called the violence “sheer madness” that “discredits the right-to-life movement.”