Cardinal Timothy Dolan was hotly tipped to be the guest of honor at the New York State American-Irish Legislators Society dinner on March 12, but was snubbed amid internal controversy, according to the Daily News.
“Dolan was the first one mentioned to honor, given his recent ascension to cardinal, and originally it looked like it was leaning that way,” a supporter told the Daily News. “It was a no-brainer”.
However, opposition came from some Assembly Democratic members due to the church’s stance on same sex marriage.
“It was clear there were certain members of the majority who would be unhappy and uncomfortable if the honoree was the cardinal,” a second member of the society told the newspaper.
The society decided to honor Irish-American leading attorney Brian O’Dwyer instead.
Another source said that an honoree’s political views should not be a major consideration.
We’re an Irish organization,” the source said. “Our guest of honor should be a prominent person in the Irish community.”
Dolan, he said, “is a newly elevated cardinal and he is a fine Irishman and a prominent player on the stage. You can make the argument I disagree with Mr. O’Dwyer’s politics, but I think he’s a fine Irishman and a great honoree — only he should have been next year.”
The society president, Assemblyman Michael Cusick of Staten Island, denied that Dolan was snubbed.
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.stephen1553 | Feb 29, 2012, 02:59 PM EST
Teh pope elevates to cardinal a man known to be involved in the hidding of the endless molestation of children by the church. Just google "Dolan hides molestation" the man should be in the slammer as an accessory after the fact to rape of children..............No wonder his main job, so I read, is to prevent the extension of the statue of limitations re the soul murder of children. Including in his former diocese of milwaukee.
Madeliene | Feb 29, 2012, 01:46 PM EST
Cardinal Dolan does not need them!
IrelandNorth | Feb 29, 2012, 05:46 AM EST
I'm an Irish Nationalist Republican in Dublin, Ireland but would probably be a Democrat if in USA, though preferably under Gore. Though brough up RC, I'd consider myself an integral spiritual heterodox Christian now. I don't believe self-appointed theocrats are due entitled to VIP treatment. Though I do share the Vatican's aversion to oxymoronic 'same-sex marriages'. Men and women were made for each other.
ciaradexy | Feb 29, 2012, 05:43 AM EST
Jetsnoone, a child needs one parent to love them and raise them well. Whoever the parent is sexually attracted to is none of your business and has no bearing on how the child turns out. YOU believe in God, plenty dont.
irishpjk | Feb 28, 2012, 05:58 PM EST
I am almost ashamed to admit I was a democratic from the Kennedy to Carter era but I did wise up. It's simple a cardinal or a Lawyer no democratic will go with the guy on Gods side they feel more at home on the other side.
pilib04 | Feb 28, 2012, 05:37 PM EST
New York State American-Irish Legislators Society made the right decision.
merefalow | Feb 28, 2012, 04:50 PM EST
until the total evil of pedophilia is recognized by the church at the highest levels, until the people who have practiced it, until the authority figures who have actively excused it,hidden it,moved problem priests from one parish to another effectively condoning it, until they accept there is a massive problem within their church and clean up the priesthood,they relinquish all moral authority to lecture lesser mortals.they need more snubs of this nature,then they might?UNDERSTAND PEOPLES DISGUST.
muirisobric | Feb 28, 2012, 04:20 PM EST
Geeeeze, that's great coming fron the most discombulated egregious group of legislators in the USA. That's documented by the way
shayblack | Feb 28, 2012, 03:14 PM EST
I am in total agreement with ARX below. The church has lost the authority to be moral arbiters for anyone. It needs to be isolated, not honored. They need reform from the ground up and the top down.
Nicomax | Feb 28, 2012, 03:02 PM EST
Hang in there, Tim. If the prelate from Pennsylvania becomes president this year all your wishes will come true.
arx75400 | Feb 28, 2012, 01:49 PM EST
I'm an American living in U.S. (Dublin parents who immigrated). Discovered Irish Central a few mos. ago. I read the comments--such as those below--and I'm stunned at the lengths people go to to PROTECT the Church hierarchy. Even when an article is re: priests raping little boys, and the Church covering it up for decades, I see so many comments making the Church out as the "victim" in it! And, now we have this buffoon, Santorum, running for presidency of the US who says the rape of little boys by priests was "really a consensual homosexual relationship between the child and the prist. AND, the priests that did it were "infected" by the "liberal" atmosphere in the US. (And therefore, "victims"). Hurrah for those that snubbed Dolan. The 1st requirement should be that the person honored be a humanitarian. Dolan, who covered up child rape and at the same time, condemns gay marriage, is NOT. If Christ appeared on earth today, he'd be called a "radical liberal" out to ruin the world, when he preached his message of love, tolerance, caring for those less fortunate. With the rape of children and cover-up by the Catholic hierarchy FOR DECADES, they lost all authority to lecture on us on "morals".
hybernia | Feb 28, 2012, 01:48 PM EST
Lawyers: Bevilacqua ordered memo on priests to be shredded Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia's leading newspaper Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua ordered aides to shred a 1994 memo that identified 35 Archdiocese of Philadelphia priests suspected of sexually abusing children, according to a new court filing. The order, outlined in a handwritten note locked away for years at the archdiocese's Center City offices, was disclosed Friday by lawyers for Msgr. William J. Lynn, the former church administrator facing trial next month. They say the shredding directive proves what Lynn has long claimed: that a church conspiracy to conceal clergy sex abuse was orchestrated at levels far above him. The cardinal died Jan. 31. The revelation is likely to further cloud Bevilacqua's complicated legacy in the handling of clergy sex abuse and could shape what happens at the historic trial, the first for a cleric accused of covering up sex abuse. Prosecutors say that Lynn, as the secretary for clergy, recommended priests for assignments despite knowing or suspecting that they would sexually abuse children. Facing trial with him are two former parish priests accused of molesting a boy in the 1990s, the Rev. James J. Brennan and Edward Avery. Lynn's lawyers argue that the new documents show he was one of the few church officials trying to confront the issue of abuse. After becoming secretary for clergy in 1992, they say, Lynn began combing the secret personnel files of hundreds of priests to gauge the scope of misconduct involving children. The result was his February 1994 memo that identified 35 priests suspected of abuse or pedophilia. What has this got to do with the above story? EVERYTHING.
hollabackgurl | Feb 28, 2012, 01:09 PM EST
If Dolan thinks that preventing adults who love each other from enjoying the rights the rest of us take for granted is more important than helping the poor or loving his neighbor that's his affair. I don't think he should be rewarded for it either.
Peggy P | Feb 28, 2012, 12:57 PM EST
What a pack of cowards who are in Obama's pocket. St. Patrick will be rolling over in his grave.
Lucia826 | Feb 28, 2012, 12:49 PM EST
Well, the Irish Catholics in the legislature and in the society are weak. I guess none of them should march or attend the SAINT PATRICK'S PARADE or festivities either. How do they think HE would have felt about the issues for which they are judging the cardinal. I see also they are learning from their Irish brothers across the sea. I hope the last one to offer any one of them solace in the their last moments isn't His Eminence. After all, because of his position, they surely wouldn't want anything to do with him, right? What a bunch of hypocrites! Shame on them...
CitizenWhy | Feb 28, 2012, 12:46 PM EST
Legislators have an obligation to create a civil public life. Cardinal Dolan is a divisive figure in civic life, and his views do not represent everyone of Irish heritage. Dolan tend to take every public opportunity to say things that divide Americans. The legislators were right not to pick Dolan. This decision was not a snub. It was a practice in prudence, one of the four cardinal virtues that used to be taught by the Catholic schools as essen=tial to a humane civil society.
hermitTalker | Feb 28, 2012, 12:18 PM EST
I wish you bigots would lay off your negative jobes on here. There are no Vatican dogmas, they came from Judiasm and Christianity 313 plus years before Christianity was legalised in the Roman Empire and the Vatican was built over St Peter's grave. The USA's early Protestants were bigoted toward Catholics and Jews and Native Americans and many still are cacist bigots. Most people are aware of child abuse now or in the recent past in families, synagogues Protestant Churches, physicians' offices and public schools but they do not write about it every time those institutions are mentioned. They move on once the harm is dealt with. Get a life and see the light ahead, please stop staring back in the dark through your rear view mirror. Attacking all politicians is also just as unfair and bigoted.
cillowen | Feb 28, 2012, 12:17 PM EST
Trying to satisfy masters is tough, even trip to ME didn't seem to help wisecracking timmy. -------------------------------- "This has some pretty clear implications," said Piff. "Inequality is very much on Americans' minds, and the potential effects of severe inequality on individual levels of behavior are major." Large sums of money may give people greater feelings of entitlement, causing those people to be the most averse to wealth distribution, Piff continued. Poorer people may be less likely to cheat, because they are more dependent on their community at large, he said. In other words, they don't want to rock the boat. "People in power who are more inclined to behave unethically in the service of gains and self-interest can have great effects on society as a whole," said Piff. And it's difficult to say whether richer people get to the top because of their unethical behavior or whether wealth causes people to become this way. "It seems like a vicious cycle," he said
Nicoletta | Feb 28, 2012, 11:55 AM EST
They probably saved him the embarrassment of having to refuse the 'honor' LOL Thank God for an Irish American Cardinal who has the courage to stand up for the true faith. When I brought my mum visiting from Ireland to Mass at the famous 'Irish-American' church i(Old St Pat's - he'd be turning in his grave!) in Chicago - she thought we'd been to a Protestant service and we had to go to a proper Mass afterwardsLOL
kilgara | Feb 28, 2012, 11:38 AM EST
The good Cardinal is probably glad for the snub. Who knows what you might catch , consorting with those low-life ,corrupt, criminals in suits called politicians.
Murph46 | Feb 28, 2012, 11:27 AM EST
donal1951 don't you get it ,the snubs are related to his actions in covering up the pedophilia.He is a disgrace.
jjkleprechaun | Feb 28, 2012, 11:11 AM EST
So, Culchiewoman, "American by forced adoption" is it? Well, take yourself out of this wonderful country, who is keeping you here now?? And as for Cardinal Timothy Dolan, I'm proud of him, for his Irish heritage, his Roman Catholic Faith and his Priesthood. You are a bitter woman and you best get a hold of yourself...you will face Almighty God one day and I'm willing to bet you won't find a thing to say!
culchiewoman | Feb 28, 2012, 09:51 AM EST
Why should simply being Irish-American or a cardinal merit one a spot as guest of honor? If they truly wanted an honorable guest, they might've chosen an actual survivor of the abuse meted out by the Church, with heirarchy like Dolan covering it up. Time to stop kowtowing to these criminals. As an Irishwoman (Irish by birth, American by forced adoption) I am hardly proud of this cardinal or any representative of the Catholic Church. They destroyed my country and my family, abused and raped children and women, enslaved women in Magdalene Laundries, and left Ireland bereft of its soul. If those are "accomplishments," then that's truly a sad indictment for Ireland and Irish Americans.
rugbyplayer | Feb 28, 2012, 09:46 AM EST
Timothy Dolan plays the part of a jovial, hail fellow well met, prelate. In reality he can be a force in New York for harm and bigotry to those opposed consciously or unconsciously to Vatican dogma. Brian O'Dwyer is the better choice.
donal1951 | Feb 28, 2012, 09:33 AM EST
As I have said before, I am Orthodox, not Roman Catholic, so I am not carrying Cardinal Dolan's water. But between the Empire State Building owners and the Irish-American State Legislators, there's been enough snubbing of the cardinal. Whether Roman Catholic or not, every Irishman and Irishwoman should be proud of the cardinal's accomplishments.