Archbishop O’Connor, 86; Papal Adviser, Ambassador

Archbishop Martin J. O’Connor, a former altar boy who became an adviser to six Popes, has died, it was learned this week.

He was 86 and died Nov. 29 at a hospital here.

O’Connor was consecrated archbishop in 1959 by Pope John XXIII and in 1965, during the papacy of Paul VI, became the first papal nuncio, or ambassador, to Malta.

The appointment marked the first time a papal ambassador had been sent to a country in the United Kingdom since the Protestant reformation 400 years earlier.

He played a major role in the reform-generating Ecumenical Council convened by Pope John XXIII in 1962 and headed the council’s press committee, reporting daily to media representatives from throughout the world on the council’s progress.

Later he was president of the Pontifical Commission for Social Communications, which in 1971 issued a pastoral instruction to serve as a guide for bishops in dealing with problems of morality in communications.

O’Connor was ordained in 1924. In 1925, he earned a doctorate in theology from the Urban College of Propaganda, Rome, and one in canon law from the University of Apollinare in Rome.

He returned that year to Scranton, where he was born, as an assistant pastor of St. Peter’s Cathedral.

He served as diocesan chancellor and in 1934 was named pastor of the cathedral and vicar general of the diocese. He was consecrated as auxiliary bishop of the diocese in 1943.

Three years later, during the papacy of Pius XII, he returned to Rome as rector of the Pontifical North American College, which had been severely damaged during World War II.

O’Connor spent five years traveling and raised $4.5 million to rebuild the college, where he was rector until 1964.

He also held the post of private chamberlain to Pope Pius XI in 1931. He became president of the Pontifical Commission for Motion Pictures in 1948, canon at St. Peter’s Basilica in 1971 and president emeritus of the Pontifical Commission for Social Communications, also in 1971.