New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan has accepted an invitation to deliver the opening prayer before President Trump’s nomination speech at the 2020 Republican National Convention.
Last spring, the cardinal was pilloried for participating in a conference call with Trump, during which Dolan reportedly said he considers himself a “great friend” of Trump and that he was “honored” to start the comments on the call.
Shortly afterward, the progressive National Catholic Reporter (NCR) newspaper published an editorial accusing Cardinal Dolan of “capitulating” to the Republican Party, while insisting he had been “masterfully manipulated” by the Trump administration.
In their editorial titled “Dolan delivers the church to Trump and the GOP,” the paper’s editors declared that “the cardinal archbishop of New York has inextricably linked the Catholic Church in the United States to the Republican Party and, particularly, President Donald Trump.”
Meanwhile, Catholic Democrats from the George Soros-funded group Faith in Public Life (FPL) posted an online letter slamming Cardinal Dolan and other bishops for engaging in the conference call with the President, insisting that the president is “not pro-life.”
“Instead of challenging Trump’s cruelty toward immigrants, denial of climate change and racism, Cardinal Dolan praised the president,” the letter declared. “He even joked he talked to Trump more than his own mother.”
“The cardinal then went on Fox News to thank Trump for his sensitivity to ‘the feelings of the religious community,’” the letter lamented.
In response, Cardinal Dolan stood by his actions, saying that left-wing Catholic Democrats had become “snotty” over his attempts to encourage dialogue.
“Now the left wing is snotty about the fact that I was part of a conference call with Catholic leaders, and I just say, ‘Look, are we in the sacred enterprise of accompaniment and engagement and dialogue, or are we not?” he asked in an online Facebook interview with Jesuit Father Matt Malone, editor-in-chief of America.
On Tuesday, it was announced that Cardinal Dolan would kick off President Trump’s National Convention, which will run from August 24 to 27, 2020 at Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Meanwhile, two well-known progressive Catholics have accepted invitations to speak at the Democratic National Convention this week despite concerns that the party has become virulently anti-Catholic.
Pro-LGBT priest Father James Martin will give the opening invocation this Thursday and Sister Simone Campbell, a social justice agitator, has been invited to speak as well.
In recent years, a number of U.S. bishops and a Vatican cardinal have chastised Father Martin for his “scandalous” portrayal of homosexual relationships. The Jesuit priest famously showcased ‘Gay Jesus’ art from homoerotic painter Douglas Blanchard and has urged the Catholic Church to extend its definition of family to include gay relationships.
Father Martin said that his invocation at the DNC would serve as an invitation to “pray for a nation where the sanctity of all human life is respected and where all people — no matter what race, color, creed or orientation — are welcomed.”
The priest added that his brief prayer will mention the unborn, and justified his appearance at the convention by noting that New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan gave the DNC invocation in 2012.