PRESIDENT PAYS HIS RESPECTS TO CARDINAL O?CONNOR

PRESIDENT PAYS HIS RESPECTS TO CARDINAL O'CONNOR

H.E. Prof. Guido de Marco, President of Malta, today paid his respects to Cardinal John O'Connor whose body is currently lying in state at St Patrick's Cathedral in New York.

Prof. de Marco, who is in New York to attend the Meeting of the Council of Presidents of the United Nations General Assembly, visited St Patrick's Cathedral this morning. Cardinal O'Connor, the high-profile conservative spiritual leader of the second largest diocese in the United States, died last week aged 80 years.

The President had met Cardinal O'Connor several times in the past and remembered how he had been struck by his personality: "Cardinal O'Connor was a man of great personality. He had the common touch; he was a man for all seasons with great human sentiments," Prof. de Marco said.

On the first day of the Council of Presidents meeting, Prof. de Marco met the United Nations Permanent Representatives of Italy, Greece, Germany, Ireland, Spain and Portugal at the residence of Malta's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Mr Walter Balzan. This evening, the President will attend a dinner held in honour of the Former Presidents of the United Nations General Assembly. Prof. de Marco served as President of the 45^th Session of the General Assembly from September 1990 to September 1991.

The President returns to Malta on Monday 15^th May.