Nation IN BRIEF : NEW YORK : O’Connor: No Role in Abortion Rebuke

Cardinal John J. O’Connor of New York said he was not consulted about the excommunication of a Roman Catholic woman for heading a Texas abortion clinic and insisted he had no plans for taking similar action in his archdiocese. Speaking after Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, O’Connor said he had no role in the excommunication of Rachel Vargas by Bishop Rene Gracida of Corpus Christi, Tex. Gracida excommunicated Vargas in June for working as the director of an abortion clinic. O’Connor has been at the forefront of the church’s fight against abortion.