Posted on 08/24/2012 3:06:30 PM PDT by NYer
Timothy Cardinal Dolan will deliver the benediction at the Republican Party convention but, in a slight to Catholics, pro-abortion President Barack Obama rejected Cardinal Dolan’s similar offer of a prayer at the Democratic convention.
Dolan told Democrats he would be “grateful” to deliver a blessing in Charlotte, according to the New York Post, but Obama turned him down.
Dolan — considered the top Catholic official in the nation, as head of the Archdiocese of New York and president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops — tipped off Democrats a few weeks ago that he had agreed to deliver the prime-time benediction at the Republican convention in Tampa next week, Dolan’s spokesman Joseph Zwilling told The Post.
As the Post reported:
“He wanted to make sure that they knew that this was not a partisan act on his part and that he would be just as happy and grateful to accept an invitation from the Democrats as he would to have received one from the Republicans,” said Zwilling.
“He has not been contacted by them” since, he added.
A senior Obama campaign official said yesterday that the Democrats would have a “high-ranking” Catholic at the convention, but indicated the arrangements weren’t yet final.
“I can’t announce it because the person hasn’t got their plane ticket,” said the official.
Obama campaign spokesman Adam Fetcher would say only, “The Catholic clergy will be an important part of a diverse community of interfaith leaders represented in Charlotte.”
The symbolism of Cardinal Dolan praying at the Republican convention is important as Romney works to reach Catholic voters in swing states to defeat pro-abortion President Barack Obama.
“This is not a partisan appearance. This is simply to do what a priest should do, which is to pray,” Joseph Zwilling, Dolan’s spokesman, told The Post. “He’s going to pray. He’s not going to give a convention speech.”
Still, Dolan’s appearance is important as the leader of the New York Archdiocese and the head of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, which is one of the leading critics of Obamacare and the pro-abortion mandate forcing religious groups to pay for abortion-causing drugs.
Thomas Peters of CatholicVote, a pro-life group that has endorsed Romney, applauded the move.
“I haven’t weighed in on the Al Smith controversy. Both sides make good arguments, but my hope is simply that we can do everything possible to maintain Catholic unity going into November and that, because Obama’s invitation to the dinner can’t be taken back at this point, we should make the best of it and learn lessons from it if we can,” he said. “That said, critics of Obama’s appearance at the Al Smith dinner should be happy to find out that Cardinal Dolan has consented to give the closing benediction at the GOP Convention in Tampa right after Mitt Romney gives his acceptance speech on the same stage.”
“In 2008 when Barack Obama won I predicted there would not be a good relationship between the White House and the U.S. Bishops during the Obama administration, and that proved to be true,” he added. “I now predict that if Mitt Romney wins the White House in 2012 there will be a very healthy relationship between a Romney administration and the U.S. Bishops, led by a close working relationship between Cardinal Dolan and President Romney. That’s all I say. But I think that means a lot when compared to what we have now.”
A Romney ad this month featured the late Pope John Paul II and accused Obama of a “war on religion.”
“Who shares your values?” the ad asks. “President Obama used his health care plan to declare war on religion, forcing religious institutions to go against their faith.”
And maybe Fr. Pfleger too.
He had better be very explicit so that the dumb Catholics (and there are legions) will understand what he is talking about.
The dems will probably have a lesbian nun say their prayer. I wonder why they even bother with a prayer. They want God out of everything.
Sad and funny at the same time!!
The real truth is that Cardinal Dolan would not read the speech that mac daddies plantation slaves had written for him praising mac daddy as the chosen one and that nobody is allowed to question anything he does or says.
Are you praying for him? ;-)
He’s just baiting the conservatives again. Hey! Look over here! Look over here!
YES!!!!
“I can’t announce it because the person hasn’t got their plane ticket,” said the official.
Besides, it’s a long way to Iran.
it is the duty of all of us to tell any Catholic or CINO that if they vote Obama, we will not consider them Catholic. They can leave if they want, but no "catholics" for O.
Who's this "we" that you speak of, Cronos?
....Jesuit Father Thomas J. Reese of the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University said Catholics “should never become captive to any single party. Every four years, we’re the swing voters who decide elections and we should treasure that.” He said Catholic clergy should continue the tradition of not running for office and bishops should continue to speak on issues while avoiding partisan politics.Father Reese said Catholics must realize that appeals to Catholic theology and religious authority will not be persuasive to everyone. “Things like excommunication and denying Communion because of votes are not only stupid, but harmful to the goals,” he said, because it gets the candidate off message and makes certain issues appear to be of interest only to the Catholic community and not the wider electorate. DiIulio said the disciplining of Catholic candidates by Catholic clergy has backfired. “People have thought better about it. Do you really want most of the ink spilled and the lines written on this, instead of the issues?” he asked.
-- from the thread Catholic voter: Focus on ‘sinful inequalities’ called core strength“One side usually blesses us when we preach the virtue of fiscal responsibility, the civil rights of the unborn, the danger of government-tampering with the definition of marriage, and the principle of subsidiarity … Yet this same side then often cringes when we defend workers, speak on behalf of the rights of the undocumented immigrant, and remind government of the moral imperative to protect the poor.
The other side enjoys quoting us when we extol universal health care, question the death penalty, demand that every budget and program be assessed on whether it will help or hurt those in need, encourage international aid, and promote the principle of solidarity … and then these same folks bristle when we defend the rights of parents in education, those of the baby in the womb and grandma on her death bed, insist that America is at her best when people of faith have a respected voice in the public square, defend traditional marriage, and remind government that it has no right to intrude in Church affairs, but does have the obligation to protect the rights of conscience.
So, we bishops get both blessed and blasted, a friend or foe of bloggers, pundits, and politicians, depending on what the issue is.”
-- Cardinal Timothy Dolan, on the thread CARA suggests polls on creation of a third party: Christian Democrats
So your post's constant attempt to smear US conservative freeper Catholics and club us in the same club as those who aren't is just stupid.
As stupid as anyone saying that since you are non-Catholic, and O says he is non-Catholic, then you two are in the same boat.
so put your little quips aside and focus on this election now.
And need I remind you that FR itself has said that we are for conservatism, full stop. Right now the GOP has it (and the dims never have and never will), but more critically the Tea-Party has it. We support conservatism. If the GOP leaves conservatism and supports abortion on it's platform, that is time to leave (and no, neverDim). thanks to FR this has NOT happened -- we are pushing the party back to conservatism, kicking and screaming.
To Fr. Thomas's point, the issues are clear -- babykilling is full stop wrong. the Dims support it, hence they can never be the party to vote for.
Well I'm glad to hear that you're committed to conservatism, but it's not within any Freepers' authority, Catholic or not, to (re)define who is or isn't Catholic insofar as your organization believes. Isn't that the pervue of your bishops? If they declare someone to be "in the fold", neither you nor I have any recognized authority over the bishop's, to declare said person differently.
But feel free to question your bishops' authority and competancy, and then to excommunicate your fellow Catholics, based on some higher authority. And with God's grace, we'll make a Protestant out of you yet :)
More to the point, it’s the duty of every freeper like YOU to ensure that you don’t club fellow freepers with the likes of Pelosi or Carter or Obama or whoever..
Neither a Catholic like Teddy K or Pelosi.
NY’er are you sure about this? I read on a thread earlier this week that Dolan would be at both conventions.
....and Cronos sets the example....
Post 4: Unless Cardinal Dolan intends to speak clearly and unambiguously about issues of morality, it will be sinful for him to speak to the Republicans because they will interpret his presence, understandably, as approval of their
though you do mention about the Catholic Church that it does then these same folks bristle when we defend the rights of parents in education, those of the baby in the womb and grandma on her death bed, insist that America is at her best when people of faith have a respected voice in the public square, defend traditional marriage, and remind government that it has no right to intrude in Church affairs, but does have the obligation to protect the rights of conscience.
So perhaps we can make a Catholic of you yet if you support the rights of parents in education, those of the baby in the womb and grandma on her death bed, defend traditional marriage etc.
Subsequent to posting this thread, the DNC extended an invite to Dolan and I posted a follow up thread with that information. Perhaps you missed it.
Cardinal Dolan - and Sister Simone Campbell - to bless the Democratic convention
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