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Home Page > Blogs > News blogs > Periscope > Cardinal Dolan right to see the light and agree to speak at Democratic convention -- Huge error appearing at Republican convention only with closing prayer

Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

Cardinal Dolan right to see the light and agree to speak at Democratic convention -- Huge error appearing at Republican convention only with closing prayer

Posted on Wednesday, August 29, 2012 at 08:37 AM

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New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan (Photo: AP)

Cardinal Timothy Dolan is doing the right thing speaking at both the Democratic National Convention and the Republican one.

His decision came after a storm of criticism about him appearing only at the Republican National Convention in Tampa and not at the Democratic one in Charlotte, North Carolina.

There was also news of a secret meeting between Mitt Romney and Dolan at Dolan’s office in New York which took many observers by surprise.

Why a secret meeting? Why not acknowledge out front that the Cardinal Archbishop of New York was meeting one of the two men who will be president come January next year?

Clearly Dolan, by far the most powerful figure in the American Catholic Church, was displaying a partisan approach that went down badly with many American Catholics.

On social justice issues such as immigration and caring for the poor, the church is far closer to the Democratic party.

On doctrinal issues such as abortion and church affairs, they are closer to the GOP.

The Catholic faithful are probably split in a similar manner with the more conservative wing leaning towards the Republicans and cultural Catholics siding with Democrats.

So the New York archdiocese and Dolan went ahead and finally did the decent thing and acknowledged both parts of their divided faithful.

In a statement on Thursday, the New York Archdiocese stated:

“Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York, has accepted an invitation to deliver the closing prayer at next week’s Democratic National Convention. As was previously announced, he will also be offering the closing prayer at the Republican Convention on Thursday of this week.

The news of the Democratic convention gig also came after the New York Times revealed that Romney had secretly met with Dolan last month.

“The two had a private meeting, previously undisclosed, at the chancery in New York, across from St. Patrick’s Cathedral, said Peter G. Flaherty, a senior adviser to the Romney campaign on religious issues.

Secret meetings and offering benedictions to one side and not the other should not be the style of the Catholic Church and its undisputed leader.

Dolan has already displayed animosity to Obama and sued him over his health care law. He has made plain his disdain for this president and his policies.

On the other side, he positively gushed in a recent radio interview about GOP VP candidate Paul Ryan who hails from his home state of Wisconsin.

It has become obvious for some time that Cardinal Dolan loves his media image and pumps it up at every opportunity.

He positively preens in the spotlight which is harmless enough, but putting the Catholic Church squarely on the side of the Republicans was a major mistake.

It does not seem that long ago that Protestant churches mounted a savage campaign against Catholic John F. Kennedy in 1960.

Many of those churches never fully recovered from the backlash to that onslaught.

This is a deeply divided society right now, even at the level of the US Bishops where some have criticized VP candidate Paul Ryan for targeting his budget cuts at the poor.

Cardinal Dolan should have really known better than to totally align himself with one side.

Luckily he has seen the light.

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Donegal6 | Sep 02, 2012, 07:22 AM EDT

My understanding was that Dems didn't initially invite him, and that he was willing to go to either or both conventions if asked. Personally I don't understand why Catholics are not Republicans as there are many in that party that are against elective abortion as a means of birth control and don't believe it is Christian to enable economic parasiticism. A child with Cerebral palsy or a wounded soldier needs total support. Some illegal alien who has a baby on our side of the Rio Grande to get a plethora of "free" (taxpayer funded), services is a parasite. Enabling welfare families, generation after generation is not Christ-like it is a bleeding heart liberal, let's feel warm and fuzzy, helping the poor ignorant bastards that can't help themselves. It's the stuff that make a lot of rich Hollywood people able to go bed with less guilt,feeling better, that someone else is donating because they got paid to speak for a charity. I am Catholic and I am firmly on the conservative side of the aisle. I think Catholics need to think of being perhaps more of a Libertarian Socially, and Conservative fiscally. This way you can have your cake and eat it too. Because a predatory pedophile was unfortunately attracted to the priesthood doesn't mean to me that the religion should be scrapped, likewise a couple of republican homo's shouldn't mean there is no validity in the overall Conservative values which are more in line with Christianity.

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eiriamach | Aug 31, 2012, 07:29 AM EDT

McNamara31, that's an excellent discussion, available at billmoyers dot com! The differences emerge very clearly between the bishops, represented by Molino/ Rbt Royal, aligned with Paul Ryan, and the nuns as represented by Sr. Simone. I was surprised to see Bishop Molino saying so publicly that he "approves" of Ryan's work in fiscal politics and disapproves of the nuns' politics. But with her knowledge of Catholic social teaching, Sr. Simone points out the errors in their position. She candidly calls Ryan's budget immoral. Their debate about 'subsidiarity' shows the huge gap between Royal/Paul Ryan on the one hand and Sr. Simone on the other. She makes perfect sense when she says govt must balance out the excesses of our culture, for example, the huge growth in the number of the poor in the past decade. She's at her best pointing out how govt favoring private corporate and personal wealth has directly and indirectly led to the increase in poverty: deregulation of the finance industry, huge salaries of CEOs and low-tax dividends to shareholders, the 'wealth gap' created by our lopsided tax structure, stagnation in workers' salaries and decrease in their spending power. These problems demand problem-solving that includes govt as well as private charity. She wins that debate, no question!

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esatdigiwank | Aug 31, 2012, 06:43 AM EDT

I suppose when you are a croney figurehead of Vatican's Herr Rottweiler , you've got to be all things to everyone..

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McNamara31 | Aug 30, 2012, 03:10 PM EDT

eiriamach Did you see Sister Cambell on Moyers and Co. this past week? Was a great interview and she made wonderful points about the collective soul of this country.(The interview is still available as a podcast) Try to catch it.

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CitizenWhy | Aug 30, 2012, 02:24 PM EDT

I don't like that man but he offered to pray at the Dem convention at the same time he offered to pray at the Republican convention. Did you call the NY chancery to get their side of the story? You should have.

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paddyRanger | Aug 30, 2012, 10:58 AM EDT

Stupid article O'Dowd.........only reason democrats in the end ask the cardinal to come is because of all the bad press they are getting over the muslims prayers they seem to prefer

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PhlutiePhan | Aug 30, 2012, 10:38 AM EDT

I agree with a previous comment that Cardinal Dolan accepted an invite to the RNC. He made it very plain that he was willing to speak as well at the DNC and was not invited. There is plenty of controversy among conservative Catholics over his invite of Mr. Obama to speak at the Al Smith Catholic Charities Dinner in mid October. He has bent over backwards in his attempts to reach out to both political parties. I believe that he is naive to do so and being manipulated in the media by Mr. Obama. The information in this article is inaccurate.

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BulldogMania | Aug 30, 2012, 10:19 AM EDT

More BULL from this website. The Cardinal said when he accepted the invite to speak at the republican convention he would speak at the dumbocrat convention too, but that he wasn't invited. They finally got around to it...and he said yes. Get your facts straight before you print this radical liberal nonsense.

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Frosty38 | Aug 30, 2012, 08:40 AM EDT

He really is back steping

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eiriamach | Aug 30, 2012, 05:16 AM EDT

McNamara31 must be happy to hear that Sister Simone Campbell, who organized the nuns on the bus tour, will also be speaking at the Democratic National Convention. I wonder whether Sister Carol Keehan, head of the Catholic Hospital Association, will be in attendance. If both sisters get together at the Convention with Cardinal Dolan and fellow Catholic Paul Ryan, what do you think they'll talk about? I'm sure it will work out somehow because, as Jesuit Fr. James Martin explains in his delightful article in "America" magazine online, Catholics "all get along great because, as you know, we Catholics agree on everything."

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CMMcShane | Aug 29, 2012, 08:11 PM EDT

Thinking people pay no attention what the Bishops say,especially guys like Dolan

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Seanmor | Aug 29, 2012, 07:35 PM EDT

Cardinal Dolan's prayers at the conventions of both parties are not likely to sway the votes of very many R.C.citizens in one direction or the other. It is estimated that 55% of Catholic voters supported the pro-abartion, pro-homosexual partnerships Obama in the 2008 election. The above article mentions the 1960 election(which J.F.K. won). At that time I was a Marine Corps private in Camp Lejune, N.C. and we frequently read the "Code of Conduct", the first article of which states: "I am an American fighting man. I serve in the forces that guard our country and our way of life. I am prepared to give my life in their defense". In those days "our way of life" did not permit the killing of the unborn or same-sex unions - and I'm still very PROUD to have served when J.F.K. was my Commander-in-Chief and Cardinal Spellman was the head R.C. military chaplain. God Bless America.

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McNamara31 | Aug 29, 2012, 07:30 PM EDT

handsome68 I think you might mean...Amadon Its how we Irish say "Ryan supporter". Just jokin

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handsome68 | Aug 29, 2012, 05:41 PM EDT

Where oh where is Billy Graham now when we need him? Oh, he is too old now. And Franklin Graham, the son, has expressed some vaguely anti-Muslim sentiments. So it's no-go the Graham (crackers). Then what about some other preacher. Oh, for example, how about Reverend Wright, Pres. Obama's minister, to give the prayer at both conventions?

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BrianO | Aug 29, 2012, 05:07 PM EDT

@joeustace, draconian cuts, like letting the earners of money have less of it taken from them? The church is a charity, Obama wants to deny charitable contributions as a deduction on tax returns, so less charitable giving will be a result of it.

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