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.”
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Cardinal Dolan BETTER deliver a great prayer!!! One that NAILS the DEMS on their EVIL ways.
Does Cardinal Dolan know about the Boy Scouts?
Does Cardinal Dolan know about the Boy Scouts?
Barry doesn’t want anyone praying to anyone but him.
http://angrywhitedude.com/2012/08/dnc-convention-to-start-with-radical-islam-of-course/
DNC CONVENTION TO START WITH….RADICAL ISLAM? OF COURSE!
If you need any further proof of the disconnect with traditional America from the Democrat Party, look no further than its infatuation with Islam. Not any Islam…but specifically, radical Islam. Of course, AWD is not sure if there is such thing as non-radical Islam. We’ve never seen too many so-called moderate Muslims calling for the halting of violence that always seems to accompany Islam wherever it spreads. If any Muslims dare to speak out against the violence of radical Islamists, they have less time left on Earth than a Sara Lee cheesecake in the fridge of Rosie O’Donnell.
Continuing with their “Islam has always played a major part in American history” BS, the radical Democrat Party will open its DNC Convention in Charlotte with a “Jumah At The DNC” event on August 31st. Word has it that Jews are invited. Apparently, the Muslims need some victims. Maybe they’ll play “Pin the grenade on the Jew.” What exactly is a Jumah? The City of Charlotte is praying it isn’t some kind of bomb!
M. Zuhdi Jasser M.D., Founder and President of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy wrote:
It is troubling that the Democratic National Convention has decided to promote and lend its name and national political platform to the organizers of the “Jummah at the DNC”. The leaders of this event – Jibril Hough and Imam Siraj Wahhaj as advertised are no moderates. They are radicals. These individuals embrace Islamist supremacy and have demonstrated support for radical ideologies.
The difference will be noticed by Catholics, especially because it will be noticed by anti-Catholics on the left. Last election it was roughly 50-50, but I would expect from now on more and more Catholics will be seeing that the Democrat party is leaving them.
Cardinal Dolan is a man with courage and principles. He’s a fearless, uncompromising ‘leader’ who loves his country.
Obamatollah is a coward with no principles; he may be POTUS, yet he will never be a ‘leader’ simply because he’s a spineless girlie-man with no convictions.
The word ‘convictions’ may be taken either way...
:o)
That’s what brought me over from the “dark side” in the mid-90s.
Excellent point, This will be especially true for ...
Obama's Catholic supporters drop pro-life argument in 2012 appeal
Flip that around. Does this way still work?
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 [fill in the blank].
Flip that around. Does this way still work?
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 [fill in the blank].
Actually, it is pretty likely that Dolan will criticize Republicans in some small way, and democrats will love it. However, the difference is that the republicans invited him, gave him time, and respectfully listened to him, where the democrats did not.
Ten to one says the teleprompter in chief will have that pro-abortion nun praying for him at the DNC convention. She’ll probably have all those liberal pro-abort, homo-loving nuns that ride around with her on that bus. They will all he sitting in the front row with their habits on, something they don’t even wear now.
The Democrat Convention opens with Jeremiah Right leading a group of 100 Gospel Singers in singing “God Damn America”.....
While the Republican Party has never achieved perfection in any way they are,today,noticeably closer to it than are the Rats.
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